This is the top three AoS lists for the Quest of Champions that took place in the UK on the 1st and 2nd of April. It involved 38 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Sky Port: Barak Zilfin
– Mortal Realm: Chamon
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code
– Artycle: Settle The Grudges
– Amendment: Prosecute Wars With All Haste
– Footnote: There’s No Reward Without Risk

Leaders
Aether-Khemist (80)*
Arkanaut Admiral (125)*
– General
– Command Trait: Ex-Grundstok
– Artefact: Celestium Burst-grenade
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Brokk Grungsson Lord-Magnate of Barak-Nar (220)*

Battleline
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)*
– x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (405)*
– 3x Aetheric Fumigators
– 3x Decksweepers
– 3x Aethercannons
– 3x Grundstok Mortars
– Reinforced x 2
Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
– Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
– Frigate Regittings: Magnificent Omniscope

Units
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*

Behemoths
Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*
– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon
– Major Installation: The Last Word

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 106
Drops: 1

Fabian Quinn: List theory and design – The list was actually played the weekend before by Tom Mawdsley at the Justice Series GT at Just Play Games. When I saw some of Toms games on Twitter and saw how much fun he was having I immediately wanted to play the list. I have played KO before in a few tournaments so had a general grasp on the army but not with the new book.

The list and interactions – This type of list really wants to be one drop to decide who is going first due to how fragile the list can be and how close some of the deployments are. Zilfin allows the Frigate to become battleline helping to have two behemoths in a one drop list.

Heroes
Arkanaut Admiral – An absolute all star giving out +1 rend to a non Skyvessel, a free command ability to his flagship and the Thunderers every turn.
Aether Khemist – Handing out +1 to rend to a Skyfarer unit every turn helps getting through armour, especially if used injunction with the Admirals Grudgebreaker rounds (+1 rend) units in the army can get up to 4 rend!
Brokk Grungsson – He’s sooooooo much fun and adds a little combat punch to the list to help finish off units that may have been left after some bad rolls.

Units
Frigate + Endrinriggers -15 wounds on a 3+ save with the healing of the riggers is amazing, especially with the +2” to move (from the second free Endrinwork, thanks Zilfin!) meaning placing Brokk in here adds a close combat threat that has not been seen in KO before. When your opponent hears the words I’m declaring a charge they often have to do a double take!

Thunderers – These guys are amazing to kick out of a boat and point at your opponents biggest baddest unit especially with +2 rend!

Ironclad – Still good to help protect and transport the Thunderers plus heroes. The Ironclad in this list is also a great defensive piece to disrupt your opponents charges with the great Endrinwork ”The Last Word” and Supremacy mine!

Overall the list was very fun to use and it really does reward great deployment and positional play. I would definitely say its a double edged sword where poor rolls, deployment and placement can lead to losing very easily.

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Astral Templars (Stormkeep)
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: The Day is Ours!
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
Karazai, The Scarred (550)*
– General
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Spell: Celestial Blades
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (330)**

UNITS
5 x Vindictors (130)**
5 x Vanguard-Hunters (110)**
– Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
5 x Vanguard-Hunters (110)**
– Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
6 x Praetors (280)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL: 1990/2000

Brett: Hero hammer combined with some Vexillor madness for ranged Mortal Wounds. That doesn’t show how carefully this list has been crafted – Astral Templars has become the choice of Stormhost with the new books bringing monsters back on to the table. Vindictors for home plate and Vanguard Hunters to get out there and take exposed objectives. This is a Stormkeep so there is not air assault element, that inbuilt teleport is especially useful. You can back up the Tunnel Master easily. With ranged and melee attacks their output isn’t great but they have access to Unleash Hell and can prevent a Vexillor being sniped. The 4 Vexillors are all handy 6 wound Galletion Champions opening the new battle tactics to this list.

Hammers though, this list has them – Karazai is effective but needs protection and has it with the Praetors. 6 is unusual but will take a lot of punishment and can dish it out as well (19 attacks hitting on 3s). The biggest issue is keeping up with Karazai. And from Turn 2 or 3 the Prime is going to enter, auto charge and delete something. Stormcast are normally pretty worn down by Turn 3 normally so this is a really powerful way to preserve some offensive force. A very strong showing with a faction that isn’t seen as that competitive, drawing with Gitz is a very solid result. It says a lot that such a small army could hold Gitz back in their current state and with the pre data slate rally. Karazai is great anti-horde.

Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
– Army Type: Pretenders
– Grand Strategy: Glutton for Depravity
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Contorted Epitome (190)*
– Spells: Born of Damnation
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Sigvald (205)*
The Masque (140)
Keeper of Secrets (400)*
– General
– Command Traits: Strength of Godhood
– Shining Aegis
– Artefacts of Power: The Crown of Dark Secrets
– Spells: Flaming Weapon

BATTLELINE
Blissbarb Archers (150)*
– High Tempter
Blissbarb Archers (150)*
– High Tempter
Blissbarb Archers (150)*
– High Tempter

OTHER
Blissbarb Seekers (200)*
– High Tempter
Slickblade Seekers (400)*
– Hunter-Seeker

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Phil Marshall: Slaanesh Pretenders – How did it work?

I decided to run a fairly balanced list that could perform a role in each phase of the game. Pretenders sub faction jumped out to me off the bat as a faction that was very strong due to the command point mechanics that I took advantage of. In Pretenders you receive 3 command points instead of 1 if your general is alive. This combined with the strength of godhood command trait is a super strong combo as one part of this allows you to issue the same command 3 times in a phase for the use of 1 command point which is a super strong mechanic which is what the list was built around. The other aspect of the command trait is that it gives the general plus 1 rend and plus 1 damage when it issues a command till end of the turn, which can make my general slightly obnoxious at potentially rend 4 and 7 damage. The artefact that I feel will be the most common is the crown of dark secrets due to the ability to potentially shut down the best hammer in your opponenets army. You pick a unit at the start of the game and if they are within 6” of your general they count as only having 1 attack. Helps when your general is a keeper of secrets, so maximising the rang of this.

How did the list play then? I myself am quite an aggressive player and I chose to play this list as an aggressive castle, pushing down the board. The Masque works really well for this with the mechanic to set up in your opponents territory 3” away from units to pressure people who out drop you taking the turn to mitigate them taking the early double against you before you have enough depravity to make your units more survivable. The other way of using it is to capitalise on deployment errors and taking off key pieces of having a good target to start the depravity train as you are wanting to get to the 36 depravity as quickly as possible to give the army the 5+ ward. In all my games the masque was my turn 1 depravity generator, popping finest hour, avoiding monsters means that it was consistently 9 attacks 2s&2s rend 1 (or 2) damage 2. Then the rest of the army was making the most of impassable terrain and setting up a tight screen of the blissbarbs and utilising the generals ability to auto 6 run all 3 units to get the maximum range out of the, all out attacking all three in the shooting phase to be 2s & 3s and in some instance triple unleash hell! The Blissbarb seekers really compliment the Blissbarb archers and are looking to do some chip damage to the main shooting targets and the unit that you are looking to gain depravity from the Euphoric Killers trait in the combat phase. Blissbarbs split firing is also great at handing out temptation dice to also try and gain more depravity or do additional damage if they decline. Its looking to pressure the table turn 1 and assert an aggressive position on the board. The Blissbarbs with the 63 shots have most likely cleared the screens in the 1st turn and the army is well positioned to unpack with a double going into turn 2. With the Speed of the Keeper and the Slickblades you are in a great position to get where you need to be and take off key pieces in the corresponding turns. The list has two great targets for the Keeper with the once per game double fight in either the Slickblades or Sigvald (depending how big his charge is). With the Epitome’s warscroll spell giving plus 1 to wound against D3 units and the ability to shut off command abilities within 3 its looking to follow those combat pieces as it essentially makes the Slickblades potentially rend 4 with the Blissbarb Seekers and the ability to shut off of all out defence. The Slickblades then become 31 (or 41) attacks 2s 2s either rend 2/3/4 depending on what you have been able to accomplish in the turn so far. With the 2” reach and potential fight twice you could have already generated the 24+ depravity so that on the second swing you are doing MWs on 6s to hit as well. There is some serious damage that can come out of this unit. Sigvald is a great hunter of units as well, due to the strike first mechanic, with getting attacks equal to the charges it is great when you role high, a lot of the time I was, this meant that I could have a great option again in the double fight as he strikes first and then the strike last is countered out and normal sequencing resumes so he would activate twice before my opponent and allowing no ward saves. Highlight was charging an unwounded Thanqoul, lifting him, piling in to an unwounded Verminlord and lifting him as well. Siggy did me proud on my way to a 4-1. The list was great at striking in waves and generating the depravity needed to summon a keeper in 4 of my 5 games.

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Legion of the First Prince
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)*
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– The Lore of the Damned: Chaotic Conduit
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– The Lore of the Damned: Levitate
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master

Battleline
9 x Corvus Cabal (80)*
5 x Chaos Marauder Horsemen (105)*
– Flails
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Reinforced x 1

Units
10 x Chaos Chosen (480)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Dread Banner
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (185)*
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulscream Bridge (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 115
Drops: 1

Brett: Slaves to Darkness is currently the most played faction in AoS, Legion of the First Prince, though, isn’t being taken as often as some others. So it’s refreshing to see a very different list with a mix of units seen often and some less common ones (including BeLakor himself). Chaos Maruader Horseman and the Warshrine make a return with the more common Chaos Knights (and the OP Mark of Nurgle – how do you kill these things), Corvus Cabal and Chosen. Everything fits into a Battle Regiment to try and control priority. With 2 Chaos Sorceror Lords and Belakor, the Soulscream Bridge is a good investment to overcome the slow movement of the Chosen.

Mobile and tanky are a hard list to play against, particularly if it goes first and those chosen get to fight twice. But equally, avoid the knights and hit those Chosen hard, and this army will struggle (it’s relatively easy to take down an unbuffed Chosen unit). That’s why the Battle Regiment is such an important choice. With so few units and so few Galletian Champions, there is play to denying them battle tactics if you don’t think you can grind them down. The knights can move extremely long distances, making it harder to avoid them, though. Losing only to a Hedonites list that could both tie them up and doesn’t mind losing models (depravity baby) as well as archers (see Phil’s write up above for how he dealt with this list and the low drops). Taking both Kharadron and Gitz is fantastic. The shorter range on Kharadron and Deamonic Speed probably played into that result.

The steamroller that is Gitz doesn’t dominate the Nurgle Knights as well as they do other mounted units. And buffed Chosen on the charge with fight twice can clear a lot of chaff. 6th is a very commendable result, particularly with a unique list.

Final Tournament Placings