This is the top three AoS lists for Champion of Black Oil 3 that took place in Czechia on the 15th and 16th of July. It involved 24 players vying to be champion.

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The Top Three AoS Lists

Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Gnarlroot
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty
– Seasons of War: The Dwindling

LEADERS
Treelord Ancient (330)*
– Artefacts of Power: Luneth’s Lamp
– Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing
Drycha Hamadreth (320)**
– Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing
Spirit of Durthu (350)**
– Artefacts of Power: Greenwood Gladius
Warsong Revenant (300)**
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Spells: Hoarfrost, Verdant Blessing
Celestant-Prime (330)**

BATTLELINE
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Dryads (100)*
Tree-Revenants (110)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)
1x Awakened Wyldwood

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

This list by Lukas Plagat shows a core combination you’ll be likely to see popping up often for Sylvaneth in Andtor. Gnarlroot for 3d6 + drop lowest casting/unbinding, Dwindling for a re-roll cast/dispel/unbind and a Warsong treesinger general with the Spellcasting Savant Grand Strategy who will sit in the corner and stay alive to achieve a GS with the sole condition of “keep your lynchpin alive”, you’re doing it anyway.

Lukas has gone for a min battleline approach, with the return of the double tree-rev unit to achieve battle tactics like surround and destroy, spreading to the sides easily. The meat (or veggies in the Sylvaneth case) of the list is found in the heroes though, the Warsong Revenenant creating mortal wound output while Durthu acts as the primary strike and fade unit, comprising a majority of the list’s damage. The Treelord Ancient creates a tree anywhere, allowing the warsong to be active from turn one, and adding an additional caster and solidly tanky objective holder. Drycha acts as supporting shooting and a back up objective holder and finally the allied tag team partner of the Celestant Prime sits in space until a key time comes to deal a whole bucketload of mortals in concert with the Sylvaneth casting and to add an additional fighting body/objective scorer. Very versatile listbuilding with damage, casting and battle tactic scoring capacity. Everything you’ll need on the new season.

One additional PS note in this list is the inclusion of Luneth’s lamp, a great anti-meta piece which allows better endless spell dispelling alongside some measure of counterplay with priests, incredibly well thought out inclusion by Lukas.

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!

LEADERS
Gobsprakk (240)
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (120)
– General
– Command Traits: Supa Sneaky
– Artefacts of Power: Amulet of Destiny
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (100)*
– Spells: Choking Mist
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (100)*
– Spells: Sneaky Miasma
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)**
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)***

BATTLELINE
Gutrippaz (150)**
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikka
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
Gutrippaz (150)***
– Gutrippa Boss
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Hornblower
– Wicked Stikka

OTHER
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)***

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

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

The legend that is Pete Atkinson of Plastic Craic joins us again for some commentary this week on his favourite Grand Alliance – Destruction. Check out his site ya dogs!

From earliest Age of Sigmar, there have been two approaches to Battleline: build it up, or treat it as a tax.  Some of the powerhouses of 1st Edition, notably Kunnin Rukk and Oops All Witch Aelves, were armies that were blessed with chaff that did their own heavy lifting, so instead of difficult list choices you had those bodies and wounds doing work for you.  All killer, no filler.

As the game has developed, the net has been cast wider and wider for what a Battleline unit can be, culminating in the mighty Mega-Gargant; well Kruleboyz take us right back full circle to those hard choices.  You can either lean into the Gutrippaz, which means tipping resources you can barely afford into reinforcing them and giving them the buffs (because 10 standalone Gutrippaz will do sweet FA); or you can take the bare minimum and use them grudgingly as an inefficient screen. 

GW seems to have recognized what a burden Gutrippaz are on the army, by allowing you to check out of taking three units and using some Hobgrots instead, who are at least a cheap screen.  You’re still stuck taking two of them though, and as GW steadfastly refuses to drop their points to something more befitting their chaff-tier stats, Kruleboyz have been left stuck in perpetual Bin status. 

Anyway.  New Handbook, new raft of points drops, new opportunities?  Giga Chad Pavel certainly saw his opportunity for legendary Killaboss status, and grabbed it with both hands.  Taking an unapologetic “screw that” approach to his Battleline, Pavel has taken the absolute minimum Gutrippaz tax, and leaned heavily into the good units instead. 

There comes a point where the Gnashtoof Boss is just too cheap to ignore, and 120 points seems to be the tipping point for a lot of people – I’ve seen him burst into a lot of lists these last couple of weeks.  12 points per wound with good mobility, a 3+ base save and respectable output is great value, and his warscroll ability heavily limits Battleshock exposure in a world of splash mortals and Geminids.

But he’s not the star of the show.  That, my friends, would be Gobby: finally doing the work that this magnificent model deserves.  Mork Sez No is terrorizing magic armies right now, with Screamin’ Mandrakk and Primal Magic Dice combining to push through those 10+ unbinds and punch out the revenge mortals.  Gobsprakk been an absolute victim for years, and he deserves his moment to shine.

There’s a neat symmetry to the rest of the list: two Shammies and two Crocs buffing two reinforced units of Dakka Boiz early game, and then the Crocs stepping up when it comes to crunch time.  You can set up two little shooty castles early on, each protected by its own little escort of Gutrippaz, as the maxed-out ranged damage segues into the climactic Waaagh turn of combat.  And boy do those Crocs feel good in combat.

The early energy in Orruk circles is mostly around cherry picking the handful of good Kruleboyz units into Big Waaagh, with a Wurrgog Prophet and the vastly-superior Ironjawz Battleline to anchor the list, but Pavel has showed us that there’s life in proper Kruleboyz armies too.  Grinnin’ Blades gives you a pretty effective shield against a lot of magic output, so I’ll be interested to see if this list style has sustained success in the Andtor Handbook.  But that’s a question for another day – today, we toast Pavel’s success.  Na zdravi!

Army Faction: Seraphon
– Army Type: Starborne
– Army Subfaction: Fangs of Sotek
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)*
1 x Skink Starseer (150)*
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Speed of Huanchi
1 x Slann Starmaster (275)*
– General
– Command Traits: Lord of Celestial Resonance
– Artefacts: Spacefolder’s Stave
– Spells: Comet’s Call, Hoarfrost
1 x Lord Kroak (410)**

BATTLELINE
5 x Saurus Guard (140)**
– Saurus Guard Alpha
– Icon Bearer
– War-drummer
10 x Skinks (90)**
– Skink Alpha
– Boltspitter
– Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
10 x Skinks (90)**
– Skink Alpha
– Boltspitter and Moonstone Club
5 x Saurus Guard (140)**
– Saurus Guard Alpha
– Icon Bearer
– War-drummer

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)

OTHER
1 x Gotrek Gurnisson (480)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Command Entourage
– Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Danny: Here we have a mostly archetypcal Starborne list, beaming directly onto the podium in these early days of the new season.

It’s got the dooble-forg and Starseer for mondo casting and star power points, allowing for tactical summoning to adapt to the board state. It’s got the Saurus Guard to bodyguard the fragile froggos, and some nice cheap skinks to, well, do stuff like standing on circles. It’s also got what is SO obviously going to become the meta-endless-spell, Geminids.

The final filth here is the inclusion of Gotrek, who does Gotrek things in a list/army that, otherwise, doesn’t have any real access to a proper anvil/hammer who can just yeet up the middle to screw with the opponent’s head. It’s a combo that makes sense, whether it’s in good taste or not…

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)*
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (100)*
– Artefacts: Mork’s Eye Pebble
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard
1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)**
– Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat
1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)**
– Warbeats: Killa Beat
1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (120)**
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
1 x Wurrgog Prophet (170)***
– Artefacts: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Spells: Hoarfrost

BATTLELINE
10 x Orruk Brutes (280)***
– Brute Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
– Boss Choppa
– 2 x Gore-choppa
5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)****
5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)****
5 x Orruk Ardboys (80)****

OTHER
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)***
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)***
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)****
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Warlord
***Vanguard
****Ironjawz Fist

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Aaron Newbom. If you’re an Orruk Warclans player, you know his name as the first player to achieve 5-0 with Kruleboyz. Recently he’s been been a bit of a Traitor and started playing those wet Aelves, but even so, he’s more than qualified to talk about the good old Orruks.

Aaron Newbom: This is definitely a more mobile Big Waaagh list than you usually see, picking lots of small fights while plugging away with bolt Boyz and stacking up Waaagh until the brutes can close in and smash what’s left.

Having this many small mobile units let’s him play the mission really well and go very aggressive when he chooses too. An interesting build for sure.

Final Tournament Placings