Tag Archives: Las Vegas open

Top Three AoS Lists for the Las Vegas Open AoS Champions Event

This is the top three AoS lists for the Las Vegas Open AoS Champions Event that took place in the US on the 19th to 21st of January. It saw 343 players vying to be crowned champion in a 8-game tournament.

LVO holds 5 rounds in a Swiss style tournament over the first 2 days. A 6th shadow round is held in the evening of the second day between the top 16 players. This round isn’t shown in the results. Then on the 3rd day the Top 8 play an elimination series with 8, 4 and finally 2 players.

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

Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
– Subfaction: Misthåvn
– Grand Strategy: Banners Held High
– Triumph: Inspired


LEADERS
Alchemite Warforger (110)*
Haskel Hexbane (180)*
Pontifex Zenestra (180)*
Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120)**
Freeguild Marshal on Griffon (270)**

– General
– Command Traits: Grizzled Veteran
– Freeguild Lance
– Artefacts of Power: Sigmarite Warhammer
Galen Ven Denst (160)**


BATTLELINE
Freeguild Steelhelms (100)*
Freeguild Cavaliers (180)**
Freeguild Cavaliers (180)**

OTHER
Hexbane’s Hunters (180)*
Wildercorps Hunters (140)*
Doralia ven Denst (160)**
Freeguild Command Corps (170)**
Freeguild Command Corps (170)**


CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment


TOTAL POINTS: 1960/2000

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Hallowheart
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Reclaim for Sigmar!
– Triumphs: Inspired


Leaders
Battlemage on Celestial Hurricanum (260)*

– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Battlemage (100)**
– Arcane Trinkey: Realmstone Orb
– Lore of the Collegiate Arcane: Wildform
Alchemite Warforger (110)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Steam Tank Commander (270)**
– General
– Command Trait: Divine Champion
– Artefact: Mastro Vivetti’s Magnificent Macroscope
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal


Battleline
Steam Tank (230)*
Steam Tank (230)*
Steam Tank (230)**
Steam Tank (230)**


Units
6 x Freeguild Command Corps (170)*
6 x Freeguild Command Corps (170)**


Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment


Total: 2000 / 2000

Allegiance: Khorne
– Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery


Leaders
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)*

– General
– Command Trait: Firebrand
– Artefact: A’rgath the King of Blades
– Prayer: Bloodbind, Killer Instinct
Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)*
– Prayer: Killer Instinct, Blood Sacrifice
Skarr Bloodwrath (110)*
Skarbrand (380)**
Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)**

– Artefact: Halo of Blood
– Prayer: Blood Sacrifice, Bronzed Flesh
Theddra Skull-Scryer (160)**
– Allies


Battleline
20 x Bloodletters (360)*

– Reinforced x 1
– Bloodreaper
– 2x Hornblowers
– 2x Icon Bearers
10 x Bloodreavers (80)**
– Blood Chieftain
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Meatripper Axe
8 x Claws of Karanak (100)


Units
3 x Magore’s Fiends (140)
5 x Godsworn Hunt (160)

– Allies


Endless Spells & Invocations
Hexgorger Skulls (50)
Wrath-Axe (70)


Faction Terrain
1x Skull Altar


Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Warlord


Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Prayer


Total: 2000 / 2000

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Mhornar
– Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
– Artycle: Honour Is Everything
– Amendment: Trust to Your Guns
– Footnote: There’s No Trading With Some People

Leaders
Arkanaut Admiral (140)*

– General
– Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok
Aetheric Navigator (100)**
– Artefact: Voidstone Orb
Aether-Khemist (100)*
– Nullstone Adornment: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon


Battleline
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (320)*

– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– 2x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Grundstok Thunderers (320)**
– 2x Aetheric Fumigators
– 2x Decksweepers
– 2x Aethercannons
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Main Gun: Sky Cannon
– Gunhauler Modifications: Coalbeard’s Collapsible Compartments


Units
6 x Endrinriggers (240)**

– 2x Drill Launcher
– Reinforced x 1


Behemoths
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*

– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Flagship
Arkanaut Frigate (300)**
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon


Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment


Total: 1990 / 2000

Final Tournament Placings

https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/87QQLXGK2M

Tournament Report: Fyreslayers at LVO 2024.

The Tournament and Setting

Some of us GAW people

The 2023 2024 Las Vegas Open Age of Sigmar Championships had the most participants ever! Since the last LVO I have played in a few more GTs and they’ve become a bit more routine but still fun. 

This tournament uses the GHB 2023-2024 (aka Andtor aka “God I hate blizzard”) and a battlescroll that has passed its expiration date. Once again it was held at the Rio, an off-strip hotel in Las Vegas. The Rio is still kind of a dump, but it’s improving! We celebrate improvements here, folks. I personally stayed on the strip in the (cheap af) Flamingo.

I was attending with some of my Georgia Warband teammates (big congrats to teammate Jon Anderson on his stellar 5-0 with LRL). Sadly we had fewer of us going this year, but still enough to be called a crowd. I got in a few days early to do some hiking this time instead of Vegas shenanigans. The parks were cooler than the hotels anyway, so that was well worth it.

It’s da desert

I ended up going 4-1, placing 56th out of 345 (lower in the 4-1 bracket) in the main event, and 3-0 in the doubles, placing us 5th out of 65.

My List

Army Faction: Fyreslayers
- Subfaction: Greyfyrd
- Grand Strategy: Masters of the Forge
- Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Auric Runemaster (130)*
- General
- Command Traits: Master Priest
- Artefacts of Power: Volatile Brazier
- Prayers: Heal
Auric Runesmiter (130)*
- Forge Key
- Artefacts of Power: Ash-cloud Rune
- Prayers: Prayer Of Ash
Ionus Cryptborn (400)*
Battlesmith (150)**
- Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
- Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)**
- Ancestral War-axe
- Artefacts of Power: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
- Mount Traits: Coal-heart Ancient
BATTLELINE
Auric Hearthguard (360)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)*
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)**
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Molten Infernoth (50)
1 x Runic Fyrewall (60)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord (+1 artefact)
**Warlord (+1 artefact)
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App

Dragon

Fyreslayers are not in the best spot in the meta, but I still had a couple lists to choose from. While more match-up dependent, I decided on an Ionus ally list because he’s cool and I like dragons. This year I got a little more practice so I at least knew the gist of the list. An alternative list idea that seemed to work well was a Flameseeker spamming Greyfyrd or Lofnir, but I was uncertain about it with so little practice.

This list itself plays as a grinding control list. It’s attempting to shift the battlefield in such a way that Ionus, the droth, and the AHG are all frustrating opponents, hurting their damage or objective staying power, while you slowly grind them down. Further, Ionus’ ability to instantly put out invocations means that on turn 1 you can use your Runemaster for either invocation (depending on needed ranges and invocations)  and then not worry about failing the other.

Ionus’ breath attack + soul burn, his -1 attacks characteristic ability, and his halting of inspiring presence all add up to make him a potent ally in Fyreslayers. Not only does it add to the army’s ability to take a hit, but it ensures that any damage hangs on the opponents sticks. Killing 20 skeletons and watching the rest flee to battleshock is very nice. He also adds ranged mortal wound output on top of the infernoth’s and AHG’s (with searing heat) to burn down high save targets.

The list is tricky to play though: it has fewer wounds than most Fyreslayers lists and damage is concentrated in three key hammers. The single flamekeeper means that Vulkites can become somewhat of a hammer too, and that turned out to be  very important in a couple matchups. But with fewer bodies, getting them there is tricky when they might well be the unit that dies. The flamekeeper also means that even the AHG can hang some two damage attacks onto opponents. 31 attacks at a 2 damage isn’t anything to ignore even if they have no rend.

Games Summary:

Every one of my opponents were great and fun. I liked all my games. I do have awful memory so the exact details of these events are probably slightly different from reality, but this is as best as I can remember. Sometimes memories blur the rounds together.

Game 1: Win vs. Jules Nguyen on Kharadron Ovelords. 
Game 2: Win vs. Landon Jennings on Ossiarch Bonereaper.
Game 3: Win vs. Steaphen Isaac on Ogor Mawtribes. 
Game 4: Loss vs. Gavin Grigar on Cities of Sigmar. 
Game 5: Win vs. Josh Chournos on Soulblight Gravelords.

Day 1: Games 1-3

Tourney space: it’s big and full of nerds

Game 1 vs. Jules Nguyen’s KO on Power Flux

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
- Army Subfaction: Barak-Zon
- Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
- Triumphs: Indomitable
- Stick To The Code (Amendments): Prosecute Wars With All Haste
- Stick To The Code (Artycles): Settle the Grudges
- Stick To The Code (Footnotes): There’s No Reward Without Risk
LEADER
1 x Aetheric Navigator (100)*
- Artefacts: Voidstone Orb
1 x Arkanaut Admiral (140)*
- General
- Command Traits: Stormcaller
- Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon
1 x Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit (170)**
BATTLELINE
6 x Endrinriggers (120)*
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)**
- Skypike
6 x Endrinriggers (120)**
- Mizzenmaster
3 x Skywardens (130)**
- Custodian
BEHEMOTH
1 x Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
- Heavy Sky Cannon
- The Admiral's Flagship: The Admiral's Flagship
- Great Endrinworks: Prudency Chutes
1 x Arkanaut Frigate (300)**
- Heavy Sky Cannon
OTHER
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
- Drill Cannon
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Jules was a fantastic opponent who took the impending infernoth incineration like a champion. Her list was a mostly-melee KO list which can be quite potent and could potentially get around my screens to dismantle my key pieces. 

With that in mind I set up with a HEAVY screen surrounding my core, setting up my vulkites to ensure a top of 1 attack will do nothing but kill them at best while getting bled for some wounds with their fight on death. Her shooting could potentially clear some of them, but probably not enough to completely remove a screen. I measure to ensure my infernoth will easily be getting into range of at least one boat as well.

With that, she gives me top of turn 1 and I proceed to end the game through sheer luck. I plop the Molten Infernoth between her two boats, roll doubles, and proceed to kill half her army. I did somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 mortal wounds total, possibly more. I note her bravery and losses, then move Ionus up to ensure no inspiring presence, the rest run. I also manage to put soulburn on some stuff and lock him in a spot to tank her if she does want a reprisal. But that’s basically the game.

KO being KO she still completes multiple tactics as she instead opts to just score points and avoid combat at all costs. As your battle points are based on tactics achievement/denial, this does deny me some points and garner her some. Very clever on her part and just good play in the face of a bad situation in which she was diced. Hats off to her for not only staying cool but staying fun. 

I win a major victory, 25-10.

Game 2: Win vs. Landon Jennings’ OBR on Fountains of Frost

Fyrewalls are dickbags

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
- Subfaction: Ivory Host
- Grand Strategy: Overshadow
LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (380)*
Liege-Kavalos (180)*
- Artefacts of Power: Marrowpact
Mortisan Soulmason (160)*
- General
- Command Traits: Aura of Sterility
- Spells: Hoarfrost
BATTLELINE
Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
- Necrophoros
- Mortek Hekatos
- Nadirite Blade
Morghast Archai (440)*
- Spirit Halberd
Immortis Guard (220)*
Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
- Necrophoros
- Mortek Hekatos
- Nadirite Blade
Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
- Necrophoros
- Mortek Hekatos
- Nadirite Blade
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (50)
TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

A non-null myriad list! Actually one of my larger fears as this gives tanky/strong OBR access to more tools that could destroy me. Meanwhile, null myriad does nothing against me. Ivory Host is particularly potent and allows for the deathriders to absolutely SLAP. 

Landon decides to give me the top of 1 and I proceed to plop a fyrewall immediately in front of his Immortis. I move up and toe tap objectives while I keep my guys spread out and behind terrain. Sadly I make a massive misplay here and forget to account for the drop location of my AHG, causing them to be weirdly split by terrain. 

Still, I have screened my big boys well and his only option is to kill the AHG and shield vulkites while also getting hit back by my own monsters. He rams the deathriders down my throat and picks up a large amount of my Auric Hearthguard. Luckily my Shield Vulkites stay strong and hold him. He also runs the Morghast to get over the terrain and positions for a double. 

He gets the double, brings back a deathrider and heals his boys up. I deny him crucial spellcasting with Ash-Cloud Rune; this puts his plans in a bit of disarray as it catches even some of his own units disallowing mystic shield. I had specifically dropped my AHG earlier than I wanted just to have the ash-cloud in place for this. He sends the Morghast in along with the Liege-Kavalos and finishes off the AHG and most of the shield vulkites. However, importantly, Ionus, my droth, and my axe vulkites live. 

On the bottom of two I proceed to dumpster his deathriders with axe vulkites + flamekeeper, his morghast with the magmadroth, and Ionus seals Arkhan back in his tomb. His morghast don’t completely die, but they die enough. The Immortis are locked up doing the slow walk around the entire back end of the board while trying to keep their hero in range of the shrug.

Round 3 sees me finish tabling his army with his only remaining units being his general, and the Immortis. At this point he’s on his back foot and can’t get enough done in this round to do much to me. 

Round 4 and 5 are basically a talk out at this point and I win a major victory, 23-18, denying him his grand strategy.

Game 3: Win vs. Steaphen Isaac’s Ogors on Lines of Communication

Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
- Mawtribe: Boulderhead
- Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder
- Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders
Butcher (140)*
- Cleaver
- Lore of Gutmagic: Blood Feast
Huskard on Thundertusk (330)
- Blood Vulture
- Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide
- Prayer: Pulverising Hailstorm
Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)*
- General
- Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter
- Artefact: The Seat of Alvagr
- Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
- Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
- Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
- Reinforced x 1
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
- Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
- Reinforced x 1
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
- Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
- Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations
Suffocating Gravetide (30)
Faction Terrain
The Great Mawpot
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 108

Steaphan is probably my favorite opponent of the event. A cool guy and I appreciate how chill he was. This match is a grind and basically hinges on me being able to slowly, but surely, do wounds to his army before he can table me with charges. 

This works great as he has low mortal wound protection outside his two mounted heroes. 

I also opt to counter-deploy far from his Stonehorn and Huskard, I know this will eat up one whole turn for him to run them over. This gives me the screening potential to eat up a double and be completely fine.

As expected the game devolves into us both smushing our armies together in the center. Through the power of a 3+ ward and an enhanced rend rune (fyreslayer heroic action) I am able to kill his Stonehorn and then his Huskard. The attack reduction from Ionus is CLUTCH and is an immense help in letting me tank his army. Premeasuring to always ensure any hits onto my vulkites/AHG receive a -1 attack is great. Proper screening goes a long way here. 

Once his stonehorn and huskard die the mournfangs aren’t long for this world and I proceed to table him. While it comes at great cost to me, I still am able to clear him from the table. The slow soul burn, shooting damage, fight on death, and magamdroth swings really help the list grind. I win a major victory, 24-19.

Day 2: Games 4-5

Game 4: Loss vs. Gavin Grigar’s Cities of Sigmar on Limited Resources

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
- City: Hallowheart
- Mortal Realm: Ghur
- Grand Strategy: Reclaim for Sigmar!
- Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Battlemage on Celestial Hurricanum (260)*
- Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Battlemage (100)**
- Arcane Trinkey: Realmstone Orb
- Lore of the Collegiate Arcane: Wildform
Alchemite Warforger (110)*
- Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Steam Tank Commander (270)**
- General
- Command Trait: Divine Champion
- Artefact: Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope
- Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline
Steam Tank (230)*
Steam Tank (230)*
Steam Tank (230)**
Steam Tank (230)**
Units
6 x Freeguild Command Corps (170)*
6 x Freeguild Command Corps (170)**
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 118
Drops: 2

A night of drinking and eating sees me entering day two a bit hungover but having a good time. I find that I get my worst possible match-up: CoS tanks. I know full well they can not only shoot me off the board but also fully heal any and all mortal wound damage I can apply while tanking on a 1+ save.

Round 1 I set up the fyrewall to block and bank on it not going away. However, I have a choice: put Ionus up far enough to hang his prayer on the opponent if he doesn’t die or keep him back and get a few more points next round but he can’t accomplish anything effectively.

I choose poorly. His tanks easily do 16 wounds to Ionus, taking only 3 tanks to kill him despite +2 to save. Almost all wounds are from the mortal wound output of the alchemite warforger, so there isn’t a lot to be done.

Ionus goes down and he gives me the top of 2. I can’t accomplish anything except a tactic and point capture as I have no way to do damage to his tanks. I hang some more wounds on the tanks, which he heals. He kills the droth.

At the top of 3 I accomplish another tactic then scoop. He was easily going to table me in his turn. My army has no way to deal with shooting damage of that magnitude, especially against a great player with good target selection. Major Loss, 27-17.

Game 5: Win vs. Josh Chournos’ SBGL on Geomantic Pulse

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
- Army Type: Legion of Night
- Grand Strategy: Empire of Corpses
LEADER
1 x Vampire Lord (150)*
- General
- Command Traits: Master of Magic
- Artefacts: Morbheg’s Claw
- Spells: Hoarfrost
- Aspects of the Champion
1 x Vampire Lord (150)*
- Spells: Merciless Blizzard
1 x Mannfred Von Carstein (400)**
- Spells: Fading Vigour
BATTLELINE
30 x Deathrattle Skeletons (110)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (110)**
3 x Fell Bats (90)**
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (150)**
OTHER
10 x Grave Guard (160)
5 x Black Knights (130)
20 x Grave Guard (160)**
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

The benefit of losing is that you are free to drink to your heart’s desire. My heart has a great desire! Josh is chill and really nice. So it’ll be a good match. 

His list relies on swamping down opponents with his deathrattle then hammering the enemy with grave guard. Theoretically this should be potent, but I have enough damage and tank that I think I can deal with it.

As always, I punish my opponent for giving me turn 1 by walling them off. But the wall has to be 1” from terrain so his skeletons can still swarm around it. My infernoth goes off and does a lot of mortal wounds to various units on his side of the board. Most will come back but it’s a good start. I shoot the black knights, killing a few and slowing them.

His turn sees him just running forward and banking on a double by dropping his units from the graves and smashing into my screens. He then proceeds to nail a 9+ charge on some guard.

He gets the double and it’s looking grim after those charges. But he fails to kill my smith by 1 wound and can’t touch Ionus or the droth. This is his doom as I turn it around, killing basically everything in his army with Ionus, the droth, and my vulkites which had swung wide to deal with the zombies. The infernoth plus Ionus prayer and shooting finish off all of his heroes.

I get the turnaround double here and he calls it. Even bringing back units he wouldn’t be able to do anything and I notch the win. We talk out some objective play and tactics then go to eat and drink more! I win a major victory, 28-14.

Day 3: Doubles Event

Big naked guys and little naked guys burn down a forest and beat up some murderous women.

I am roped into the doubles event on day 3. I initially did not sign up, but my teammate Fred convinced me as he was injured and could not play in the main tournament. He has one arm, so between us both we have three. I name the team “Team Eric” in honor of my good friend, and usual doubles partner, Eric Urbas.

He plays King Brodd’s warstomp and I play a cobbled together slapfather 1k list. It’s a good time and I maintain a “slow drip” of beer buckets. By round 3 I am quite drunk against our final opponents. 

Round 1 sees us play “The Everchosen.” An Ironjawz and S2D combo that could be a potent round 1. However, with proper screening and the ability to tank anything for at least one combat, Fred and I clear them. Oh, not to mention an early infernoth double that clears a lot of models off the field. Major Victory, 24-20.

Round 2 sees us play “Bigs and Littles” which is a match of King Brodd’s in a mirror plus Squiggy Gitz. Both Gargant armies do basically nothing. Between two King Brodds almost no damage is applied. I particularly enjoy both just not hitting anything with terrain ever. Luckily a magmadroth fighting twice can down a gargant. Once that happens their army falls apart and we get a win. Awesome dudes, though. Zachary’s ward saves will haunt my nightmares forever.  Fred is amped and I’m happy it’s a good time.

Round 3 has me slurring my words and entering a match versus “Season of War’s” Sylvaneth plus DoK combo. Oliver and Jordan are cool guys and very chill. In stark contrast to Fred who has gone off the deep end and destruction is in his veins now. Fred hits full ahead on the gargants, losing their ward as they spread. Luckily my magmadroth easily clears the Swords and through the power of lava blood kills the Cauldron. King Brodd dies, but he tanks long enough. We end up clearing all of DoK and leaving Belthanos to try to do it on his own. But he can’t and we end up winning it. Major Victory, 27-24.

Oh, and in all three rounds we had King Brodd throw the forge at the opponent’s. It was free ammunition!

We manage a 3-0 somehow and finish 5th out of 65 teams. A good showing. 

Conclusion:

Good times with good people. I did worse this year than last, but the only way to do better was a 5-0. I think one was in the cards, but sadly I fell short. 

The list itself turned out to be quite potent. I feared it was actually an 0-5 list, but it performed admirably. Still, it has a huge hole against mortal wound shooting armies, so it just wants to dodge those matchups. Sadly, one of them happens to be meta at this moment.

Like last LVO, the molten infernoth is a monster that can’t be stopped or reasoned with. It simply must destroy all.

The real takeaway for this list was that deployment is THE most important game time for this list and how you move on turn 1 can make or break things. Properly spacing and screening won me most of my games more than anything.

My highlight might be the hiking before LVO. The desert’s beauty is in stark contrast to the usual tree-filled east coast. Such an alien landscape was a treat to explore in The Valley of Fire.

ROCK AND STONE!

It seems that no one can escape travel frustrations during LVO. Our flight was delayed, but luckily it was with friends and we played narrative Age of Sigmar in the airport. Azyr is now without power after the Big Waagh! orruks stuck a fork in it. Otherwise we got home safe and everyone started getting LVO-Covid, as is tradition.

Airport Narrative Event: Plugs are the objectives

Will I go to LVO again? We’ll see. I may skip next year and instead go to Japan or something.

LVO Stats Preview

Factions

Let’s start with something nice and simple. With 347 players attending this year’s event, almost every faction is represented (sorry Bonesplitterz!). The international trend of Stormcast Eternals, being the most popular faction currently, has followed through to the LVO with both they and Gitz being represented by 29 players each. Blades of Khorne and its anti-magic continue to be popular.

Subfactions

Of the 24 Blades of Khorne players, 14 have opted to run Reapers of Vengeance. 13 of the 16 Idoneth players have gone for Fuethan to optimise their Sharks.

Most Diverse Factions

Most factions seem to have one or perhaps two go to subfactions regardless of whether it’s in the international meta or at LVo. However, the four factions above appear to have the most diverse subfaction selections.

Thanks to Furythrow2 from PlasticCraic‘s discord for asking this question and peaking my interest. Rest assured, this will be included faction stat articles.

Most Common Warscrolls

Talking about Idoneth, we can see that the dreaded sharks appear in 81% of all Idoneth lists, and the turtle joins them in 75% of Idoneth lists.

Every Big Waaagh list features at least one Wurrgog Prophet, and each Ironjawz list features at least one Maw-krusha.

In the Cities lists, we can see that both Pontifex Zenestra and the Command Corps are too good to pass up and are making their way into 91% of Cities lists. While the fusiliers are also popular, appearing in 73% of lists.

Likewise, with unique and powerful characters (300pts+), we can see Katakros features in 16 out of 22 Bonereapers lists. King Brodd has been chosen in 12 out of 13 Sons lists.

Grand Strategies

Around 1/5 of all players in attendance are using the Spellcasting Savant grand strategy (keep your Andtorian general alive).

Command Traits

Shaman of the Chilled Lands proves to be both the most popular command trait from the GHB and at the LVO this year, with no less than 36 players using it in their lists. While Master of Magic, which compliments the current GHB nicely, is also the most popular command trait from the core rules.

List Points

The vast majority of lists come in at either 2000 or 1990 points. The lowest points total for a list this year is 1910.

Player Experience

This is perhaps the most interesting section (to me, at least), we’ve broken down the attending players’ experience over a number of slides and have based this information on all tournaments they’ve attended (GTs and otherwise) since the start of 3rd edition AoS in 2021.

I was uncertain whether to include this one. Essentially, they show the average win rates of players who have tournament experience in Blue, compared to the most recent win rate in the meta for that faction. It would appear a number of skilled players with high win rates are playing Cities of Sigmar, Daughters of Khaine and Disciples of Tzeentch. While Slaves to Darkness, Maggotkin, Sons, Lumineth, and Gitz appear to have been largely ignored by the more elite players.

Following on from the previous slides. We have the top 20 players sorted by their win rates. In theory, this should be the list of the favourites to win the event this year. Note that three of these players are playing Cities, tying back to our previous slide.

I believe (buy don’t quote me) that Gavin Grigar is the most experienced player at the tournament with 61 different events under his belt since the start of 3rd edition AoS.

As expected, the vast majority of players are from the US or Canada, with only 1 Australian (Anthony of AoS Coach fame) and 1 from Ireland (the amazing Mick Wendel).

Finally, we have a breakdown of all the players’ experience in attendance. Interestingly, players with 11 or more events in their history make up over 50% of the field, while those with 5 or fewer events only make up roughly a quarter of the player base!

Good luck to everyone heading to Vegas this year!

Top Eight AoS Lists for the Las Vegas Open 2023

This is the Top Eight AoS Lists for the Las Vegas Open that took place in Nevada, USA, on 27th, 28th, and 29th January. It involved a massive 324 players, all vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

We’re particularly lucky this week as six of the top eight players agreed to give us comments on how their lists work. On top of this, we’ve also got comments from the Head Judge at LVO, Gareth Thomas.

So, thank you to; Jiwan Noah Singh, Kaleb Walters, Gavin Grigar, Cody Saults, Nate Trentanelli and Gareth Thomas for all agreeing to give us your thoughts.

Quick Jump Menu

1st – Jiwan Noah Singh (Beasts of Chaos)
2nd – Nicholas Walters (Ironjawz)
3rd – Kaleb Walters (Disciples of Tzeentch)
4th – Gavin Grigar (Cities of Sigmar)
5th – Cody Saults (Ironjawz)
6th – Rigolet Thibault (Beasts of Chaos)
7th – Nate Trentanelli (Nighthaunt)
8th – Camaron A Hallford (Ogor Mawtribes)
Head Judge – Gareth Thomas

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Beastlord (95)
Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)***
Artefact: Tanglehorn Familiars
– Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm
Tzaangor Shaman of Beasts of Chaos (135)***
General
– Command Trait: Unravelling Aura
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Grashrak Fellhoof (150)***
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage

Battleline
30 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (525)**
30x Pair of Savage Blade
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Gors (70)**
Gor-Blades & Beastshields
10 x Gors (70)**
Gor-Blades & Beastshields

Units
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*
Reinforced x 1
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*
Reinforced x 1
5 x Grashrak’s Despoilers (0)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Wildfire Taurus (70)

Terrain
1 x Herdstone

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

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 159
Drops: 10

Jiwan Noah Singh: The heroes all serve a function against different matchups, and with the Gavespawn ability, they can then serve a secondary function when they die.

The general has to be the Tzaangor Shaman to unlock Galletian Veterans for the big block, but also has the extremely helpful big cast once per game, and moves 16/19” if I need to go hold and up a huge threat. Mostly, I used the big cast for the bull spell, but in other matchups, I considered he would have used tendrils of atrophy to break armor stacking. His speed let’s him get there for that short ranged spell.

Grashrak gives out the +3 move, and because he can pass wounds, it is helpful against ranged threats who losing the move bonus would be difficult against. His spell is also a super combo with Gavespawn if I need to lift a gargant or something in one activation.

The shoggoth was there for his spell and having a starting monster, and the pre-phase move made anyone worried about that going off have to deploy really far back.

Beastlord was the newest addition but was a pretty fun vehicle for the gnarlblade. With run and charge, he moves 15” on an auto run, so throwing him across and 18” deployment means he can also make people worry about making me take top, for small only investment on my part. Additionally, if he got his attacks off and the bull was on something, it was a less likely but still redundant plus to wound, or hit and wound.

Gors are 10 potentially deepstriking bodies on a 4+ in combat for 70 points. They also have plus to run and pile in, which is so strange that it just confuses people when you tell them, but it is actually helpful.

Tzaangor are 60 wounds, have mortal banners, can zoom across the board and fight something with a billion attacks, but also rally on 4+. I generally deploy them in a cloud, all about 1” from each others bases, to maximize the board space, but also to be able to pull them out of 3” against things that shut down inspiring, and if I need to rally, recharge, ect. Let’s me save bodies if I pull them out of coherency too, which I did intentionally several times to be able to rally again.

The rest of the list is enlightened, in blocks of 6, in bounty hunters. These have tons of uses and can pump out massive damage. Turning off all our defense is like another rend in many cases. So with the fight last bull running around, some plus to hit (always try to end on damned if you can) from multiple sources, and the throwing an extra attack on them from a spawn, they are such a threat that an opponent must deal with them. When you stack a plus to hit, going second, and gavespawn attacks, I know of very few things with that output. And at 2/3 rend no cp, few things can eat it with saves.

The beasts summoning on top of all the threats to kill or hold things, and ability to run a hero into something, die, and lock them up, meant that in almost all my games I can lose tons of things and still keep taking points. I built in some tech to deal with specific matchups that concerned me, most of which didn’t happen, but in general it’s a 5 turn army with a ton of flexibility and lots of different things going on. Good proving ground usage was hugely helpful with the ability to summon Galletian Veterans, and the output meant the main armies I expected to see, Ogors, Gargants, Nurgle, Nighthaunt, all had something that was a big problem for them that I didn’t mind sacrificing.

That’s pretty much it.

That, and having distractingly beautiful hair, that helped too.

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

Leaders
Orruk Megaboss (140)
Artefact: Destroyer
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Hulking Brute
– Artefact: Armour of Gork
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95)
Allies

Battleline
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
Jagged Gore-hackas
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)**
Jagged Gore-hackas
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)**
Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)**
Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 95 / 400
Wounds: 13
Drops: 9

This list – piloted by Nicholas ‘Scooter’ Walters – is testament to the difference reps and familiarity with an army can make. Even if that army is considered underpowered.

Scooter nearly went all the way with what is a pretty common IJ list, with a sneaky ally in the shape of the Fungoid Shaman for the extra CP generation. I mean, it’s an ‘obvious’ list – but if you watch back the stream of Scooter playing Gavin Grigar’s Cities list for example, you can see the difference skill and knowing the intricacies – the limits, the averages – of your army can make. Keeping the Maw Krusha back until it’s absolutely needed – knowing when to smash that ‘Destroyer’ button on the foot boss – and making all the right calls with your pigs are all key to playing IJ well.

Even though the list will be hurt by losing bounty hunters, making the pigs half as effective, the inclusion of the Megaboss makes sense going into the new season – he’s a great, durable and fighty Galley champ. The speed and activation potential with smashing/bashing of the feral hogs will never go out of style.

Ironjaws might be suffering from a lack of units and power creep these days but Scooter is out here to prove that if you love your army, and you’re prepared to stick with it and get the reps in, ‘the meta’ be damned, you too can damn well near win LVO.

Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch
Change Coven: Guild of Summoners
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Ogroid Thaumaturge (170)*
General
– Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Kairos Fateweaver (440)*
Magister (120)*
Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate
– Incarnate is Bound to the Magister
Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch (150)
– Lore of Change: Bolt of Tzeentch

Battleline
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)*
7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield
– 3x Cursed Glaives
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)*
7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield
– 3x Cursed Glaives
10 x Tzaangors (180)*
10x Pair of Savage Blade

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Tome of Eyes (40)
Umbral Spellportal (80)
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 72
Drops: 2

Kaleb Walters: My main goal was to create a Swiss Army Knife style list. Bring as many solutions to the answers in my faction as possible.

Reason For Family: Guild of Summoners: 1 FREE Battle Tactic: Summon Lord of Change. LOC have 14 wounds, -1 Rend shots, 18 inch range, movement 12, +1 To casting for all Tzeentch casters, -1 to hit naturally and monstrous rampage abilities. While other families have more flexibility, the norm is to summon Blue Horrors that have 20 wounds, Movement 5, shoot 12 inches at 0 rend but have good board presence.

List Design: Min Max: Minimum Battleline Maximum Hero’s/Monster Damage. My list is designed to castle up and react to the deployment of my opponent. By staying low drop I normally have the option to decide how I want to engage. I either sacrifice my Acolytes (120pt a unit) to an alpha strike list, or I position aggressively with a front and center incarnate primed to go wild and level up. Either formation still allows me to throw powerful spells that can turn off Command abilities and unleash a possible 15 mortal wounds at 27 inches or more. In addition, as the game goes on, I become more magically dominant with the additional LOC while reducing the overall strength of my opponent.

The next part of my list design is increasing/ reducing my opponents armor. I have 2 spells & 1 Endless spell that can reduce my opponents armor and with the rend stacking of the Acolytes or the LOC natural -1 Rend shots and of course the already powerful incarnate -2/-3 rend I am able to turn normal attacks into Mortal Wound equivalent attacks.

I also know the future with my lame sauce guaranteed Grand Strategy & Destiny Dice…….

Opportunities of The Design: I have a difficult time dealing with Hordes and / or armies that can summon cheap disposable models on a mission with more than 4 objectives. I also find it difficult to face armies like KO that can stay outside my threat range and then engage on their terms.

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
City: Tempest’s Eye
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)*
General
– Command Trait: Hawk-eyed
– Lore of Eagles: Strike of Eagles
Arkanaut Admiral (140)*
Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Eagles: Aura of Glory
Battleline
20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (200)*
Reinforced x 1
10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*
10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)*

Units
20 x Arkanaut Company (180)
– 2x Light Skyhooks
– 2x Aethermatic Volley Guns
– Reinforced x 1
4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)*
Reinforced x 1
4 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (440)*
Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 125
Drops: 2

Gavin Grigar

Core Concept
Bring guns… lots of guns. We recently had 2 books introduced into the meta (Ogors and Slaves to Darkness), and the resurgence of some old foes (Dragons, Ironjaws and Nurgle), that generate a ton of kill pressure and melee engagement on Turn 1. Tempest’s Eye combats this with great Turn 1 buffs (+1 Save/+3 Move) and efficient shooting (+1 Hit/+1 Wound) supplemented by a healthy number of mortal wounds (Hurricanum, Dracoth Breath). All these elements together are hopefully enough to keep even the scariest melee threats at bay.

Strengths
Shooting Volume from Crossbowmen, Tempestors and Arkanauts combined with force multipliers centering around the Hurricanum (+1 Hit/+1 Wound). Adaptable Tech from the Admiral (+1 Rend/Ward Removal/Charge Debuff). Drop Control (2 Drops) typically allows the list to immediately threaten a double turn and forces your opponent to make hard decisions on Turn 1.
Horrorghast allows the list to hit crucial damage break points against large units such as Tzaangors, Chosen, or Blood Sisters or spread damage across multiple units for greater efficiency.

Weaknesses
1 Drop armies or specifically being disconnected from the double turn, which forces the list to overextend and expose its firebase. Melee armies whose movement outranges the threat ranges of the list’s shooting units. Middling mobility limits the army’s ability to play proactively and aggressively.

Takeaways and Closing Thoughts
As fun as it was to throw buckets of dice, the list has some glaring weaknesses that I was able to mostly avoid due to some fortunate pairings over the course of the weekend, but it does have undeniable strengths and when the list wins it really wins. Enjoy responsibly!

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
Army Type: Ironjawz
– Subfaction: Bloodtoofs
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)
General
– Command Traits: Mighty Waaagh! Leader
– Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist
– Artefacts of Power: Destroyer
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (120)*
Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat
Megaboss on Maw-krusha (480)*
Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist

BATTLELINE
Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)*
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)*
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Shootas (120)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Cody Saults: Ironjawz, for me, was the only choice for LVO this year. My standard approach to tournaments is to not play the same game everyone else is expecting to play. With GV being a thing, and folks running bounty hunters, 2 drops kept me tied or out dropping every opponent, and with the list’s raw damage potential, it has the potential to cripple opponents before they get a chance to interact with your units. Second consideration, with a tournament with as many rounds as LVO potentially has for those who do well, avoiding burnout is key. The list only has 4 unit profiles, which helps with keeping rules front of mind and always knowing your options.

The Maw Crusher is an absolute engine for this list, as Skull-Shaking Bellow allows you to spread Mighty Destroyers out to multiple targets, which helps with board control and damage potential. Its melee profiles allow it to put out a punishing amount of wounds, while its solid armor save prevents it from being an easy removal target. Moreover, it has several ways to help clear screens to make sure you get to your target. Its shooting attack is only 4 potential wounds at rend 1, and very short range, but combine that with the impact hits from the pigs, and enhanced stomp monstrous action, the crusher stands a very good chance of clearing screens and getting to the target it truly wants. A quick Finest Hour passing to your opponent’s turn, with an All Out Defense means that even after they deal their damage, they will continue to gum up the works for your opponent, while taking a monstrous amount of extra attention to move. Having 2 allows for redundancy, protect the one in the most vulnerable position, and then respond with the second. The mighty destroyers move means they are never out of position, as if they clear targets and need to pivot to another flank, they almost always have the movement to get there.

Gore Gruntas also represent a solid damage investment, as buffed by the Warchanta, and under the Iron Jaws WAAGH, there is very little in the game they can’t chew through. I went with two units of three, and one of six. The 2 three-man units can take buffs and present good screen clearance in matchups where the opponent has good screening, and for matchups you don’t need the initial sacrificial salvo, they can be used for fast objective grabbing, or counter skirmishing. The post-combat movement abilities from Bloodtoofs also allow for re-establishing screens or locking up units safely.

Warchantas are a must in any IJ list, as they can pass out solid damage bonuses to units about to be in combat, give out charge bonuses, and even heal a key couple of wounds. They have a surprising amount of beef for small characters, and receiving their own buffs can dish it right back.

The last inclusion in the list was shootas, an easy inclusion to give me some cheap screens. Shootas in 20 man squads can be strung out to prevent enemy outflank or deep strike, and the nets, positioned well, can punish an opponent for under-committing resources to remove them or what they are near.

All in all, the list was tailored with so much mobility and relatively low drops to force an opponent to play defensively. This works out either way for us, as the number of hard to remove wounds makes sure they stay in their deployment zone while we grind down their units. Every unit in the army punches up, able to drag down more costly targets, with the post combat mobility to shift our positions, removing the need to choose between damage and objectives.

All in all, the list performed well. The meta we had until the GHB transition had a lot of lists with hard DPS checks, and this list put out enough damage to meet that need and then some.

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired,Indomitable

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

Battleline
10 x Ungors (65)**
Mauls & Half-Shields
10 x Ungors (65)**
Mauls & Half-Shields
6 x Dragon Ogors (290)***
2x Paired Ancient Weapons
– 4x Draconic War glaives
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Dragon Ogors (145)***
– 1x Paired Ancient Weapons
– 2x Draconic War glaives

Units
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)*
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)***
Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)
Allies

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravening Direflock (30)

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

Additional Enhancements
Triumph

Total: 1945 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 129
Drops: 11

It’s the ‘other’ BoC list from LVO! As you can see, it damn near went as far as Noah’s, losing only to Scooter’s incredibly well piloted IJ list.

It’s a relatively normal archetype – with the usual 3 HQs for their wide variety of utility – the Dragon Ogor Shaggoth especially proving critical due to his incredible warscroll spell (heal d3 to a Dragon Ogor and give them re-roll wounds) and the Dragon Ogor scroll allowing re-rolls of 1s while near him.

A mix of Ungors for super cheap and speedy (+3″ thanks to the Bray Shama) trading pieces (once the rend starts stacking) and the more out-of-the-box Dragon Ogors make up the battleline – offering speed, punch, and plenty of board control.

Beyond that, it’s basically ‘the spindog’ syndrome. 6 Enlightened on Discs also provide an absolute missile – if you read any of these, you know by now they’re an absolute staple of BoC lists.

The body count, speed, and Spinedog allow Rigolet to care less about dictating first, and so he packs in bounty hunters plus a warlord for additional utility. A savage list that will operate very differently (and be like, double the cost) with the new book – but there you have it!

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
Procession: Emerald Host
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Reikenor the Grimhailer (190)*
Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist
Krulghast Cruciator (150)*
Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (150)*
General
– Command Trait: Spiteful Spirit
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Battleline
5 x Hexwraiths (170)**
5 x Hexwraiths (170)**
5 x Hexwraiths (170)**
5 x Hexwraiths (170)*
10 x Chainrasps (110)*
10 x Chainrasps (110)*

Units
10 x Craventhrone Guard (180)*
Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Black Coach (290)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
Mortalis Terminexus (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 101
Drops: 4

Nate Trentanelli: The list began as a bit of a joke to include two famously “bad” units in the Black Coach and the Craventhrone Guard- or “Crossboos” as they’ve come to be known by. I decided that I couldn’t possibly take Top Nighthaunt in the ITC this season without ever having actually played these units. Not wanting to have no chance during games, I peppered in some more useful units in the Hexwraiths and the Krulghast- staples of Nighthaunt armies.

I’ve gone for an Arcane Tome Knight of Shrouds here for one reason. With his Command Trait “Spiteful Spirit”, when he takes damage in the Combat phase he will roll a number of dice equal to his wounds characteristic and do a mortal wound to all enemy units within 6” for each 4+ he rolls. Quite the useful little bomb. To make things even better, Arcane Tome makes him a wizard, allowing him to be moved by Lauchon. Almost guaranteeing a turn 1 charge wherever I want to maximize his chances of doing mortal wounds. Reikenor with his +3 to cast will almost guarantee Lauchon goes off.

Hexwraiths do what hexwraiths do – nearly unmatched speed to pin opponents in their deployment zones. With 4 units of them, I can either overload my opponent turn 1 with all 20, or simply move block them turn after turn. It may lose me all my hexwraiths, but I’ve functionally disallowed my opponent from actually scoring any objective points.

2 units of Chainrasp exist solely for 2 battle tactics. Start them in the underworld and bring them down on a turn. You don’t have a good battle tactic option. Put both in your opponents deployment zone for an easy Barge Through Their Lines with a bonus for 2 GVs. The next turn take Desecrate Their Lands for another Battle Tactic. 2 complete for no effort.

The unit of Craventhrone Guard I also put in the underworld. Though their damage output is poor, it is something Nighthaunt don’t really have access to anywhere else – shooting. Even that small amount of extra damage is noticeable and useful. They are also a great distraction piece, and the Spectral Bolts ability to shoot through terrain is better than it seems. I know, I know. It’s Crossboos. Trust me. They will work.

Last is the Black Coach. It really is the AoS equivalent to a tank. It’s base size makes it terrific at blocking key areas. With the Craventhrone Guard shooting it’s actually quite easy to power it up as well. Allowing you to shoot with the Craventhrone Guard first, slay 5 models from a screen, and fire the Black Coach into the thing you really wanted to shoot for 3D3 mortal wounds. Alternatively, keeping it on its 4+ ward makes it truly crazy at tanking. Keeping it in the Krulghast bubble also gives it -1 damage for even more craziness. It’s shocking how survivable it is.

The Mortalis Terminexus gives you the flexibility to heal your heroes and Black Coach or use it more as I did, which is an aggressive mortal wound bomb. 26” total threat range from casting is great, and it can pump out quite a bit of chip damage.

All together, the armies Battle Traits of Ethereal and Wave of Terror combine to make even the weakest looking unit truly scary. Roll enough 8s on the charge, and even Kragnos will fall to simple chainrasp. The army has 5 different units that do D3 mortals on a 2+ on the charge. Don’t underestimate how much that is. Simple averages tell you that’s about 8 mortal wounds. Which, by the way, you can retreat and do all over again every turn.

Because of the movement of this army- Hexwraiths, Lauchon heroes, Black Coach teleports, and Underworld Reserves – you can be anywhere and everywhere. Movement wins games, and it’s no surprise to me that most of my opponents had issues with catching me. Even if it they were close, you can simply use one unit to block for the rest to move to safety. Keep your units alive until the exact moment your opponent is out of position. And then pounce all at once. Be careful not to allow your opponent to single out units and be careful. You don’t pull your units away from each others support. Aggressive movement with supporting units will win you games.

Happy haunting!

Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
Subfaction: Boulderhead
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Frostlord on Stonehorn (450)
General
– Command Traits: Touched by the Everwinter
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Metalcruncher
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
– Prayers: Pulverising Hailstorm
Butcher (140)*
Cleaver
– Spells: Molten Entrails
Huskard on Stonehorn (400)*
Blood Vulture
– Mount Traits: Rockmane Elder
– Prayers: Keening Gale

BATTLELINE
Stonehorn Beastriders (310)*
Blood Vulture
Stonehorn Beastriders (310)*
Blood Vulture
Thundertusk Beastriders (270)*
Blood Vulture

OTHER
Gnoblars (120)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Camaron has my thanks (but not quite my sword) for not taking any Ironblasters! What he’s taken instead is loads of big, angry cows! It’s almost a completely pure Beastclaw Raider army – love to see it.

This list essentially asks ‘can you handle 5 cows swamping you’, and the answer was ‘no’ for everyone other than Kaleb’s Tzeentch, who were able to puncture those super tough hides with his sneaky magic MW output.

Enhancement wise – which is where the tactics are in a list like this – you’ve got Metalcruncher on the Frostlord for dealing with tanky 3+ saves, along with Touched by Everwinter to make him into a priest and able to cast the excellent MW AoE ‘Pulverising Hailstorm’. The Huskard gets the Rockmane Elder (-1 to wound in melee).

A pack of Gnoblars act as a cheap add-on screen that still fits into the battle reg – crucial for a pressure list like this – in order to dictate first and almost certainly give it away every time to make an absolutely devastating round of turn 2 charges and a hopeful end-it-there double.

Big gratz to Camaron for losing only in the shadow round to a legendary player and a bad match-up.

Head Judge – Thomas

Acting as Head Judge at LVO 2023 was a thrilling experience. I should begin by thanking both Front Line Gaming, and Scott Reed, the Head TO, for organizing such an amazing event.

LVO 2023 was the largest Age of Sigmar tournament in the world, by far, and 50% larger than previous LVOs. Whilst being involved in such a large event was a great experience, the logistics of organizing 325 players did throw up some challenges.
To start, the release of the Battlescroll with new points one week before the list deadline (and after our rules cut-off) was a bit disruptive. We had to ensure that every player knew that we would be using the new points, and yet we still had quite a few lists submitted with the old points. Equally, we had to ensure that every player knew that we would not be using the new GHB, which was released the day after lists were due (and one week after rules cutoff). Of course, there were still a few players who submitted lists assuming the new GHB (comically enough, there was one player who we could not contact until round 1 to let them know that their Aspect of the Champion and Sharpshooter battalion had to go!).

The rest of the pre-event organization was handled by FLG and Scott, so my preparations beforehand were minimal. But I have been involved with the running of 36 events in the past 18 months and know that quite of bit of prep work is involved.

Due to the large number of players, LVO did not use the standard AoS GT format of 5 rounds. Instead, we used 5 rounds followed by a 3rd day of single elimination rounds for top 8 players. This year, 9 players went 5-0 which required us to run a Shadow Round 6th game for the players in 8th and 9th place to determine which of them would advance to Day 3.

The first five rounds were pretty straight forward from a rules judging point of view. The pack used at LVO, produced by Scott Reed, borrowed from the OTTD Generic Pack, which is something I was heavily involved in creating. Many of the players at LVO already have experience attending events that use the OTTD system, which helped keep rules and scoring questions to a minimum. When tricky questions did arise, I was able to fall back to the aosfaq.com website and team to provide answers.

The pressure as Head Judge only really started during the Shadow Round, which was the first round where we introduced active judging (where a judge watches the entire game and points out rules mistakes before and whilst they are made). Unfortunately, the game was a bit of a one-sided blowout – the choice to use Mighty and Cunning proved problematic when one player had essentially all GV and the other essentially none. Lesson learned! The only rules issue that cropped up was when one of the players declared Desecrate their Lands on a Defensible terrain piece. I had to remind him that you can only control Defensible terrain pieces by garrisoning them – the standard 3” rule does not apply. He was able to declare another terrain piece instead.

Day 3 was where the real excitement as Head Judge began, which entailed three rounds of active judging among the best players in the world. I was fortunate enough that James O’Brien who was a contender, had not made it to day 3, but as an experienced TO and judge was willing to jump in and judge half of the games.

When judging the final 8 of a 325-player event, there is really very little stress. These are fantastic players with a huge amount of experience and, more importantly, great sportsmanship. There was no confrontation to deal with, and all players played with intent at all times, meaning there were no disagreements to intervene with. If anything, I had to prevent players from giving too much benefit to their opponents!

Instead, the rule of table judging was just handling the occasional line-of-sight judging, pointing out often forgotten rules such as you need to jump into a garrison to control it (even the top players didn’t know that rule!) and mostly sitting back and watching some fantastic Warhammer being played.
The biggest drama, up until the end of the final game, that is, was during the first round, when one of the games ended in a complete tie. With single elimination, a tie is not an option. It was also not something we had prepared for. Fortunately, the two players were able to agree that under any tie-break rules, there would be a clear winner.
Of course, I couldn’t end without talking about that final game. What a game! I could watch both Noah and Scooter play Warhammer all day. Scooter is one of the great personalities to watch, and Noah is a fantastic human being. And their game was so close.

I suppose I should talk about the ending… By the end of the final game, the players had been through 3 days of extensive Warhammer. All with the backdrop of Las Vegas. I think it is fair to say that both players (and Judge) were drained. The game came down to control of an objective. Noah had a chaos spawn on it, Scooter had a goblin shaman. They fought in combat, but neither could kill the other (Scooter made the 4+ ward save to keep his Shaman alive on one wound – much to the crowd’s delight!). It was a great moment!

Of course, the spawn has 5 wounds, and so is worth 2 points on an objective, and the Shaman only has 4 wounds, so it is worth 1. But we were all too exhausted to notice. Noah assumed the Shaman was worth 2. Scooter assumed the spawn was worth 1 and I failed to notice the mistake (oh so easy to assume all heroes in the game are going to be 5 wounds or more!). That meant that they were tied on points, and Scooter won the match on battle tactics scored. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that we caught the mistake – where we had not considered that the Shaman was only 4 wounds (a friend texted me – thank you!).
The way both players handled the turnaround in decision is a credit to them both. The level of joy each felt at the other being declared the winner was heartwarming.

The final, and LVO in general, left no doubt that Age of Sigmar has a fantastic community. And I am proud to be part of it.

Final Tournament Placings

For the full tournament placings visit BCP.

So You Want to be a Winner?

Yesterday the AoS Coach interviewed Las Vegas Open Winner Gavin Grigar on his path to victory.

A great video for anyone who wants some tips on improving their tournament performances.