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

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The Top Three AoS Lists

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

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

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

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (400)
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Units
3 x Nurglings (105)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Endless Spells & Invocations
Rune of Petrification (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Expert Conquerors

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Tournament Placings