This is the top three AoS lists for the Invasion AoS 2023 that took place in the Norway on the 23rd and 24th of September. It involved 58 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament. Spoiler, Skaven didn’t win.

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

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

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

The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Army Subfaction: Null Myriad
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Katakros (500)*
1 x Mortisan Boneshaper (140)*
– Artefacts: Artisan’s Key
– Spells: Hoarfrost
1 x Mortisan Soulmason (160)*
– General
– Command Traits: Dark Acolyte
– Spells: Levitate

BATTLELINE
30 x Mortek Guard (390)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– 3 x Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade
– 3 x Soulcleaver Greatblade
6 x Immortis Guard (440)*
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
– Necrophoros
– Mortek Hekatos
– Nadirite Blade

BEHEMOTH
1 x Gothizzar Harvester (160)*

TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Walter Brock: Null Myriad continues its showing of being the sub faction to stand above the others. Ignoring offensive spells on a 2+ covers a weakness in mortal wounds from offensive spells.

Spellcasting savant Remains a tried-and-true Grand Strat for the Ossiarch legions. Being Reliable Grand Strat with the Immortis protection makes it very difficult for the opponents to stop.

Starting off we have the Big Boss himself. Katakros dials everything up to 11. Giving +1 to save and wound in a massive Aura of 24 inches. Having the chance of bleeding opponents of their Command points and giving a unit -1 to hit all help turn the tide of battle and swing the math in the OBR players favor. On top of all this, Katakros himself when within 3 inches of a hero hits incredibly hard.

The Boneshaper is another unit often seen in Bonereaper lists. Artisans key giving a chance for the Boneshaper to use its healing ability on a 3+. Hoarfrost helps make each unit more consistent. Mortek Guard buffed by hoarfrost become a serious threat.

The soulmason is the general in this list. Because the chair counts as a mount means that the Soulmason can be targeted by ranged attack and the Immortis help protect the Mason from threats. Dark Acolyte Makes the first Ossiarch lore spell cast by the Soulmason unable to be stopped. With the Soulmason knowing every spell on the Ossiarch lore it can reliably get off what critical tool it needs for any situation needed.

A massive unit of 30 Mortek Guard. With the points drop Mortek Guard have become a very efficient unit for their points. Having access to several defensive options from command abilities and receiving the buffs from Katakros can make Mortek very Difficult to remove. With the healing from Katakros and the Boneshaper could potentially return 9 models in each Bonereaper hero phase. Add in the Harvester healing and the Mortek Guard might never go away.

Deathriders are seen everywhere. These have multiple applications. Acting as a screen. Scoring battle tactics. Deathriders act as a Swiss army knife of units. Having an application for almost any situation.

A unit of 6 Immortis guard. Another staple seen in many Bonereaper lists. With the change to healing Immortis/Stalkers, they cannot act as the anvils they were before. Gone are the days of 4 Immortis dying and then watching all 4 come back. Their offensive output remains. Immortis are still great at protecting the General.
Lastly is the harvester. With the points drops the harvester has opened as an option recently. Potentially being able to bring back Mortek Guard. Hitting decently hard and opening a battle tactic. The harvester is a cheap option that does a lot of small things that adds up.

All this fits Inside a battle Regiment as a one drop. All together this list has a lot of options and small things that add up to a mountain of potential. Well done to Ben.

---

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Befouling Host
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
The Glottkin (580)**
– Lore of Malignance: Gift of Disease
Horticulous Slimux (200)*
Poxbringer Herald of Nurgle (130)**
– General
– Command Trait: Nurgling Infestation
– Artefact: The Witherstave
– Lore of Virulence: Fleshy Abundance

Battleline
20 x Plaguebearers (240)**
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Plaguebearers (240)**
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Nurglings (100)*
1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)**
1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)**
1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)**
1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)*
1 x Beasts of Nurgle (100)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000

Geir Vedeld: The list has three main focus areas:

1) Summoning: With 3 Gnarlwoods (one extra from sub-faction, one from Slimux) together with the Nurglings deep striking in opponent territory, I have a steady flow of Contagion Points coming my way. I summoned more than 400 points worth of units every game.

2) Denial: Taking up board space, being difficult to kill is main. At some point, the opponent runs out of battle tactics as well, and during the tournament I don’t think I had a game where my opponents managed 5 Battle Tactics

3) Most importantly, the list revolves around Glottkin and his Blightkrieg ability. This is also supported by summoning Sloppity Bilepipers (yes, plural). The only game I was really close to losing was the one where I only summoned one. My first two summons were always Bilepipers, so I could fan out and deny pile-in in a huge bubble.

Countercharge is very strong in this GHB. A lot of battle tactics revolve around making charges. The Glottkin’s ability triggers in the end of the movement phase, making his ability very strong! You have the same dynamic in other factions as well, but combined with no pile-in, it is stronger than the mere countercharge.

The reason for units of Plaguebearers is that they can form a line outside of reach for the opposing unit. Sloppity only stops pile-in for models within 3”, so tagging a unit on a corner with a Beast of Nurgle is not sufficient. Tagging a unit on the corner with a Plaguebearer, leaving the rest of the unit engaged but out of reach on the other hand is much more efficient.

Then the opponent is left with either retreating or standing still. And then you countercharge on the retreating unit afterwards…

Slimux provides rerollable charges for BoN. Meaning that even though you might lose your beast, you will actually stop the movement forward for your opponent, and also stop a devastating high rolled charge killing more than your list can handle.

The list does a fair amount of damage over time, but it is neither mobile nor explosive. So a grind is won over 5 turns, not 2. You need to position yourself correctly at an early stage, because you will not move much further. Therefore the low drop to go first. You both get a Sloppity T1 and a good position.

It is not an S-tier list. There are several ways of playing around the list, and if you know them you should be able to bypass. 3d6 charges from Varanguard, denying summoning T1, retreat and charge from OBR, a large unit of e.g. Blood Warriors locking the army down, etc. Heavy shooting or magic taking out The Glottkin is also a very effective way. He is key to the list.

The list is demanding to play, being purely reactive you need to know your opponent’s armies. But it is also demanding to play against, and you are severely punished for small mistakes on both sides.

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

LEADER
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
1 x Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Spells: Hoarfrost
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
1 x Be’lakor (340)**
– Spells: Daemonic Speed
1 x Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (180)**
– Artefacts: Helm of the Oppressor
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
6 x Varanguard (280)**
– General
– 6 x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne

BATTLELINE
3 x Varanguard (280)**
– 3 x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
5 x Chaos Knights (220)**
– Doom Knight
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
– Cursed Lance
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Banner of Rage
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
9 x The Unmade (80)**

OTHER
6 x Furies (80)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Danny Elvestad: So! When building this list and any list really, I look for efficiency. In this case I wanted to maximize my value from Knights of the empty throne. That means as much mounted as possible. The recent point changes let me hit some other breakpoints in units I could bring within the confines of belakor, varanguards and decent magic control. That combination has a huge damage output, stable unbinds, and a great defensive option from belakor. After that I look into making battletactics as easy as possible. I landed on a few key units that smooth up the battle tactic game quite substantially.

Varanguard general – If I meet heavy shooting, I present them as a forward screen so I can preserve the rest of my army and rally these guys every turn.

Unmade – Cheap screen with an amazing ability to stop redeploy. Gives me better options for 4 battletactics and some flex for overshadow grand strat. (Charge 3 units, Lead into the maelstrom, Surround and destroy and the match to ruin)

Furies – Great cheap unit with the option to retreat instead of fighting in combat. Flying and move 12 makes this huge. Gives me better options for early surround and destroy. Cool trick with bait and trap battle tactic where you start with only 1 unit in combat. Retreat the 1 unit, charge furies, activate them first, and retreat in combat. Along with 2 more charges from other units thats 1 more battle tactic done. They can also cover a huge distance with this trick to steal backward objectives and such.

Chaos Lord on Karkadrak – My favorite addition. He is just a good bang for buck now. Run and charge from kotet, extra attacks from Khorne, with a cool trick of getting 2d3 impact hits and strike first when he charges. He is tanky, does enough damage, flexible for battletactics and he actually makes rolling on the eye of the gods table relevant. Stacking rend on him can be quite fun. Running up and stealing an objective or killing a backline hero makes the Lust for Power battle tactic very easy. Also he is a fast piece to carry 1 of 2 artifacts. Either deny models with 1 or 2 wounds the ability to contest objectives within 6″ of him, or stop inspiring presence within 6″ of him. I chose the last one but I regretted it for the tournament. Both are great.

I usually try to max buff 3 varanguards and ship them into the enemy early to remove screens. Then I push up wait for openings to get the rest into the good stuff. While mentally marking out what units I need to kill to secure my grand strat. Save belakor for t2 or t3 usually after killing what ever got sent in to kill my 3 varanguards.

I put a lot of effort in maintaining buff ranges, unbind ranges, and defensive formations with terrain, behind my initial charge with a throw-away unit. (sorry 3 varanguards) And positioning my smaller units so they are ready to do battletactics into the next turns.

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)*
– Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Wurrgog Prophet (170)*
– Artefacts of Power: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Spells: Hoarfrost
Megaboss on Maw-krusha (450)**
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist
– Artefacts of Power: Destroyer
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
Gobsprakk (240)***
Orruk Warchanter (120)***
– Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (120)***
– Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat

BATTLELINE
Orruk Ardboys (80)**
– Waaagh! Drummer
– Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– 2 x Orruk-forged Shield
Orruk Brutes (140)**
– Brute Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
– Boss Klaw & Brute Smasha
Orruk Ardboys (80)***

OTHER
Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)**
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)**
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka

CORE BATTALIONS
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Peter Holland: I normally let the professionals comment on lists, but there was none of them available so you’re stuck with me!

Gobsprakk, a favourite of mine, continues to show his face in both Kruleboyz and Big Waaagh lists on the tournament scene. And for very good reason! The ability to unbind spells on 2D6 and then add a further Primal Dice to increase that unbind score, means that Gobbsprakk absolutely bullies enemy casters with his ‘Mork Sez No!‘ ability. To make it even worse, this list has the potential to shove Gobsprakk into unbind range from the first turn thanks to ‘Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork‘ on the Shaman. It means that easy battle ‘Magical Dominance‘ tactic on turn 1 ifKnut decides to go first, isn’t quite so easy. Otherwise, you’re looking at the army staying back (possibly) while building up Waaagh points before slamming into the hapless opposition.

Then you have the solid Ironjawz core of the army, with Brutes and Gore-Gruntas, a couple of Warchanters to buff them and a Maw-Krusha with Destroyer, we all know what they do.

Final Tournament Placings

Thuis event used Best Coast Pairings as its TO program.