Tag Archives: Tournaments

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Fittsy, Games Workshop, Tournaments

First-Time AoS Tournament Tips You Need to Know

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Are you heading to an AoS Tournament for the first time? Well, you’ve come to the right place, good old Fittsy is here to help. I’m here with some tips from myself and others gathered from the darkest depths of the internet (the Woehammer and PATAP discords) to help you on your way to feeling ready and good on the day. Maybe you’ve been to a few tournaments and you’re just looking to up your prep, you might well find something here you haven’t thought of or seen before! Before I get into things, all I can say is get out there and give it a go! Personally, I’m so happy I got into the tournament scene, the chance to meet new people, play against different armies, and get in 3 games in a day is something I appreciate every time I get out to another tournament. That first one was the hardest just to take the leap and give it a shot! If you’ve got some friends who you can head to one with, that’s a great way to get into it but heading off by yourself can also be a rewarding and satisfying experience!

Preparation

Getting enough sleep

Do what I say, not what I do… first tournament, I slept maybe 3 hours before and hopped on the train still tipsy from the night before. A good night’s sleep the night before a tournament makes a world of difference for me and I really feel the difference in my concentration and results when I make sure I tick this box.

Cheat sheet / reference cards

We all know GW produce some pretty expensive pieces of paper with references for all the units (I tend to buy them for my tournament armies just for peace of mind) and these sort of things can be useful as well as printing out your faction rules. This is also good so that your opponent can look at your rules if they need to. One step further is a good old cheat sheet. These come in all shapes and sizes (there are even some webpages that will make them for you… RIP AoS Reminders) but one of the best ways to do this is to do it yourself. Work through your army and look at what each unit does in each phase and jot these down on a piece of paper… by hand, on a computer, just going through this will help you to recognise which phases you need to focus on and having it there will let you check at the end of a phase to make sure you’ve done what you need to do!

Learn the scenarios

Regardless of which ones they are, take a quick read through each one so that you know what sort of deployment zones, twists, and objectives you’ll have to deal with. Even the best players mix up elements of the scenarios from time to time.

Maybe even set up a mock of the seployment zone for the scenarios and check your deployment if you’re feeling excited

If you haven’t played all the scenarios in the player pack then next step is to find a couple of friends and play through those scenarios! This is a good chance to practice both he scenarios being played and your own list. You may even pick up on some other points in this article that you wan’t to practice too.

Learn your own list

Here, there’s two helpful aspects. One, you will have to think less about what you do with your army and can focus on board state and strategy. Two, you can clarify what your army does better to your opponent.

Next step is to play it 3 to 10 times in a row… but not everyone is as crazy about that as I am 🙂 combine this with learning the scenarios though and you’ll have a better idea what your army will want to do going into each game.

Practice with a clock

Why not combine those practice games with this step… you can do this easily enough with a stopwatch but if your tournaments allow chess clocks and you have access to one, I suggest to even bring this into your casual friendly games just to get used to switching it back and forth. This has a couple of benefits, games that run too the end are just plain satisfying, it helps you to see where you burn time (5 minutes every battle tactic is almost a third of your 1.5 hours), gives you confidence that you are playing to time, and if you have to use a chess clock, then you already know how it works!

Read the lists

Honestly, this one is a bit of an optional one. Unless you’re playing tons, you’re unlikely to know every army’s rules. What does help is to have a bit of an idea how an army operates and maybe down to what some of the key units do. Now, theoretically, your opponent should tell you at the start of the game and that can be enough for a lot of people. I’m not very good at learning by listening and reading them through and looking at the rules works way better for me. Don’t sweat this one though, especially for big tournaments where it’s not even worth looking at all of them!

Packing

I mean, it shouldn’t go without saying but don’t forget your army… all of it! Especially any models you’ve finished up the night before… don’t leave them on your painting table!

Models Repair Kit

This is more important for some armies than others… for a lot of purposes a bit of super glue is probably enough. Hopefully you don’t need it but for the times you do, then you’ll be glad you’ve got it.

Snacks

Tobi (our illustrious teams captain from my last article) is a master of the snack packing! I personally always try to have a pack of musli bars and 2 bananas to take the edge off.

Water/fluids

Almost all events I’ve been to in the recent past have had enough water for the participants. I still often pack myself a little special drink (go Club Mate) to give myself a treat when I need a pick me up.

Probably not the best for hydration but every time I take a sip, it cheers me up a little 🙂

An extra t-shirt

This is one I don’t do but there have been some days where I wish I had! If you tend to sweat when things get intense, then an extra t-shirt can help you and the other players nearby to get through round 3 without any deathstench issues.

Shower in a can

See above, a can of deo or one of those deo sticks in your bag can just help to take the edge off that sweat smell! Even you, Nurgle players!

Human repair kit

I almost forgot this one because I always personally have the following with me at all times:

Painkillers – a lifesaver for round 3 or the day 2 hangover, Throat lozenges, Band-aids, Optionals: Allergy medicine, Face mask – to avoid bringing home more than you planned

Measuring aids

I recommend the following at a minimum: measuring tape, bendy 12” rulers, 9” sticks, 3” measuring gauges with the 1” and ½” bits too. 6” may also be important. Depends a bit on your army which ones will be most useful but over time you’ll collect those you need most often.

Gaming aids

You’ll need something to measure wounds. I highly highly recommend using a tracker or counters with numbers on them… I like the Warcry ones because you can point them towards the unit with wounds missing. Dice are ok but are prone to being knocked over or being cleaned up by one of the players.

Stepping up a level, get some of those little coin cases and print out your armies possible buffs and debuffs. I even have my artefacts etc printed in them so my opponent can see which heroes have what and I can pick them up and put them in my hand the turn I need to use them!

Dice trays are a matter of personal preference in the end. I actually like them and mention them here because I use them to sort my tokens and dice… and they can handily help you to transport annoying things like endless spells between tables.

Last but not least, if you’ve got units which teleport, have large bases, or commonly try to squeeze in where they shouldn’t, a couple of spare bases will save you and your opponent a lot of headaches. This is also helped by talking it though with your opponent, getting their agreement then making the move whenever it’s a bit iffy.

You can see a few tokens out from each player here on the table… I havea couple of misc markers that I use to highlight things on the table for myself such as Places of Power or which Objectives I control

Printout of your list

It’s good to have a couple of copies printed out so that your opponent can have a look through at their leisure on their turn. This feels like it is falling out of fashion as we go more digital but remember some of your opponents may just be old fashioned and its good manners to bring a copy with you.

Dice

Well, this one seems obvious… but there’s two aspects here which will help you (and your opponent). Having enough dice is important… although you may not want to bring 80 dice for those massive attacks. Making sure you have a good number to get through your turns is important. Secondly, I find it better to use clear dice (as vehemently confirmed by the Woehammer Discord)… and I don’t mean see-through dice.

These dice are the devil!

On the day

Here’s a few tips which are probably valid for all competitive-ish play but it fits here too as especially at tournaments you want to be clean and efficient in your play.

Remember to have fun

I’m not here to tell you how to play (although this article is trying to guide you politely :P), but please remember you and your opponents are primarily there to have fun (and if not, I do think you’re doing it wrong). This is honestly easy to forget sometimes especially if you really want that win or sometimes even if you’re just having a bum day. Stick at it, celebrate your little wins (respecting the opponent still of course), maybe make funny noises when you charge (my Nighthaunt used to say Awoooo every time I rolled a 10+), and congratulate your opponent on a good play.

Shoes of Gork

Wear your comfiest stomping shoes for the day. Getting leg cramps or foot pain because you’re not wearing a comfy enough pair of shoes is a real pain in the arse… sometimes literally!

Sort your dice

This could just be knowing how many dice you have in a package so that you can calculate a little quicker. There are some devices to sort your dice too into batches of 5. I personally like to bring 25 of my “normal” dice which I sort into piles of 5s on the table next to my dice tray ready to pick up as many as I need. This helps you to speed up play a little but also lets you keep your mind on the game.

Communicate with your opponent

Sometimes this is easier said than done (pun intended), especially if you feel a bit shy or nervous but give it your best shot as this one can really help your and your opponent’s enjoyment of the game. Start with how you will play the terrain and cocked dice (if not defined in the player’s pack), especially useful is how you will deal with take-backs just to make sure you don’t have a nasty surprise later in the game. Let your opponent know what you are doing i.e. here I am attacking with these 20 Grimghasts, I’ll use All out Attack, they have 2 attacks, plus 1 for the Cairn Wraith, plus 1 for the artefact I used this turn. Now they have 81 attacks including the champ with a 3+ to hit where 5+ is an auto wound because your unit has more than 5 models, 3+ to wound, with -2 rend since your unit is infantry. I use this example because even though it is complicated, it’s best to start out with the overview then reiterate as you roll. You may already do this but keep this up and your opponent won’t have the awkward situation of asking you to clarify over and over again.

Call a judge

It doesn’t matter how well you communicate with your opponent, there will be times where you just don’t agree! Don’t be afraid to call a judge or ask a neutral party to help clarify a key interaction. Don’t worry, almost no one except Madigan knows how Endless Spells really work (not even you GW ;))

Take a break

I wanted to finish with this one because a lot of players don’t even realise that this option exists. If you feel overwhelmed, take a couple of minutes to yourself, maybe step outside or walk back and forth for a bit just to clear your head. Maybe even have a Kit Kat 😉 Then get back to it and have fun!

Wrapping it all up

Well, I hope there’s been a helpful nugget of wisdom in here for you. Maybe you’ve read through it and you’re already doing all that. Good on ya! Now you have confirmation that you’re ready to get out there, move some models, throw some dice, and have fun! If you’ve got questions or further recommendations. Drop us a comment down below or jump on the Woehammer Discord and come and chat!

Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Peter Holland, Tournaments

AoS Stats for February

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The below list are the tournaments that have been used to populate this data.

Quest of Champions – Heat 1
Columbus Brewhammer
Ragnarok Hobbies
Mindgames and Magic February AoS Tournament
South Bend Age of Sigmar: February Tournament
Da Great South Waagh
Gods of War 2
Sunday Slaughter 7
Torna! (A Udine) AoS
Bloodshed in the Shires
Battle of Copenhagen
Age of Sigmar 3rd Edition Tourney 2/12/2022 @Level Up Games
Schlact Um Wiener Neustadt 3
Apotheosis – 22
Emerald City Open
The Lone Star GT
Giga King of the Hill Pt 1
Beginner Friendly Learner Tournament
War Under the Mountain 11
Grot Gang RTT 3: Reloaded
Atomic Age of Sigmar
Lone Star GT Practice
Tiny Fanatic I TTB Aos Open 2022
Leodis Legion AOS 19th February
Age of Sigmar Hispania 2022
Loremaster #2
Cherokee Open – age of Sigmar GT
Age of Sigmar Tournament Hosted by Oscar Lars & Warp Charged Gaming Slambo Age of Sigmar
PCG Hosts Lightly Salted’s 1st Age of Sigmar RTT
Old Town Throw Down
AOS Milano – February Warm Up
Brewdog AOS GT
GT Pomeranian
Little Alpacup III
Mawtribes Massacre: Resurgence

Most Selected Grand Alliance

This month I’ve included a split as calculated by the number of battletomes for each Grand Alliance, the column on the far right shows each Grand Alliances variance to this ideal share. Order maintains its 40%+ share of all armies at tournaments. While Death still props up the rest with 13.3% in Feb falling from 15.4% in January.

Grand Alliance Win Rates

Order remain the top faction with a win rate of 50.7% but this has dropped from 53.3% last month. While last months second placed Grand Alliance, Destruction has fallen to last place with a win rate of 46.3%. Chaos climbed from last place in January to 2nd place in February, increasing their win rate to 48.5% from 42.9%.

Most Selected Battletome

Stormcast Eternals are still the most selected faction with 14.7% choosing to play the faction. Fyreslayers claim the wooden spoon with 1.1% allowing the Hedonites of Slaanesh to move up a position and increase their share from 0.6% to 1.3% or armies played.

Battletome Win Rates

Many articles I’ve read and players I’ve spoken too have said that for balance to be in the game each Battletome needs to have a win rate of between 45-55%. This of course is a pipe dream and an extremely difficult task to achieve, that being said this does show which Battletomes possibly need to be reviewed by GW in the future. More so if a Battletome is consistently underperforming such as Skaven or Gloomspite Gitz

Top 20 Most Selected Sub-Faction

It’ll probably come as no surprise that the Hammers of Sigmar still lead the table in the most played sub-faction.

Win rates for Sub-Factions with 50+ Games

Legion of the First Prince leads the way here with a disgustingly good 61.1% over Jan and Feb. While Skaventide prop up the rest with 34%.

5-0’s & 4-1’s

Below is a list of the number of times a faction/subfaction combo has achieved a 4-0-1 or better at a 5 game tournament

Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Peter Holland, Tournaments

(UPDATED) AoS Stats for January

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I’ve updated the January AoS stats with a number of tournaments that happened at the end of the month, namely those in bold in the list below. Going forwards from February onwards, I’m only going to include tournaments where more than 16 players attended.

Be wary those, these are for all the one day and two day events that we’ve covered plus two or three more. All armies are at 2,000 points and using the current rules and FAQ’s.

The below list are the tournaments that have been used to populate this data.

Golden Sprue AoS GT 2022
Clash of Swords
Tempest
Coliseum of Sigmar
PSU: March to War
Norwegian Masters
Kirwans Game Store Monthly AoS Tournament
January 8th Metagames 2k Tournament
Grudge Hammer LVO Prep Event
Atomic
Dallas Defenders New Year New Player
TTWG Sigmar Bash
MOX Age of Sigmar Tournament
Forge & Fire 2k Age of Sigmar
Viking Games RTT: Realm of Viking Part I
Gitmob Charity Brawl 2022
LVO 2022
Warpfire New Year Knockout
Knights of the Pond Game Day #7
New Year New Friends
Clockwork AoS Monthly
Windy City AoS Champion Smash

Most Selected Grand Alliance

Table before LVO Update
Table after LVO update

With an increase of 455 additional armies to the table, the percentages have barely changed, with Order still top at 41.9% of all armies present at tournaments in January. The biggest change is to Death’s representation post the LVO, with their share increasing to 16.3% from 12.5%.

Grand Alliance Win Rates

Before LVO Update
After LVO Update

Order have claimed the top spot from Destruction post the LVO update, with Destruction falling to below 50% win rate overall. Death and Chaos pretty much remain the same.

Most Selected Faction

Stormcast Eternals are still the most selected faction after the update with 14.1% choosing to play the faction. Declan and three others were the only to represent Big Waaagh! at tournaments in January, but is Declan a trend setter?

Faction Win Rates

Cities of Sigmar take over from Idoneth Deepkin to lead the table here with a massive 69.0% win rate over 71 games. With Declan and the Big Waaagh! in second. However, let’s narrow this down to the more popular factions who have played at least 50 games:

A lot more factions in this table now with Cities and Idoneth dominating the win rates. Kruleboyz, Fyreslayers and Skaventide prop the rest up, all with win rates of less that 40% (this doesn’t bode well for my Kruleboyz at Burning Skies next month!).

Top 10 Most Selected Sub-Faction

Before LVO Update
After LVO Update

It’ll probably come as no surprise that the Hammers of Sigmar still lead the table in the most played sub-faction.

Skaventide have dropped completely from the table.

Top 10 Win rates for Sub-Factions with 20+ Games

Cities of Sigmar/Living City now top this table at 75.9% win rate over 29 games. While the Beasts of Chaos who are getting their (much needed) White Dwarf update shortly are sitting at the bottom of the table with just 28% wins from their 25 games.

Games Workshop

Friday Follow – Tournament Calendars

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I go to a lot of tournaments as weekends are the best time for me to play games… plus I get to play lots of new players and new armies!

But how do you find them in your local area?

There are heroes throughout Warhammer looking after you, and I want to shout out to two of them.

The Dankhold (UK)

Trogg has an occasional blog, but also a list of all tournaments in the UK! It’s a great resource and one I use… a lot! Especially if I find myself with a spare weekend.

AOS Shorts (Worldwide)

Dan runs a website with lots of resources for Age of Sigmar, under the branding ‘AOS Shorts’. If you’ve never seen it, give it a read – and use the calendar to get your tournament fix.

And if you’re uncertain whether to go or not, take the plunge, sign up and let the tournament organiser know that you are new! We’ve all got to start somewhere and I always find the AOS community very welcoming.

— Declan

Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Peter Holland, Tournaments

AoS Stats for January

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We’ve covered a lot of Top 3 lists over the last month, so I thought it would be good to look at some of the stats surrounding them.

Be wary those, these are for all the one day and two day events that we’ve covered plus two or three more. All armies are at 2,000 points and using the current rules and FAQ’s.

The below list are the tournaments that have been used to populate this data.

Golden Sprue AoS GT 2022
Clash of Swords
Tempest
Coliseum of Sigmar
PSU: March to War
Norwegian Masters
Kirwans Game Store Monthly AoS Tournament
January 8th Metagames 2k Tournament
Grudge Hammer LVO Prep Event
Atomic
Dallas Defenders New Year New Player
TTWG Sigmar Bash
MOX Age of Sigmar Tournament
Forge & Fire 2k Age of Sigmar
Viking Games RTT: Realm of Viking Part I
Gitmob Charity Brawl 2022

Most Selected Grand Alliance

Order tops the table with almost half of all armies being from an Order Battletome.

Grand Alliance Win Rates

The win rate for each Grand Alliance tells a difference story though with Destruction being the most successful and Chaos the least.

Most Selected Faction

Out of those 280 armies that we’ve focused on it’ll be no surprise that the Stormcast Eternals are the most played faction with nearly 20% of the field playing Stormcast. This would mean on average at a five day event you’re likely to play at least one Stormcast army.

Faction Win Rates

Idoneth Deepkin lead the table here with a massive 72.7% win rate over 22 games. However, let’s narrow this down to the more popular factions who have played at least 50 games:

This leaves the five most popular factions, with Ironjawz heading this mini-league with a 57.7% win rate.

Top 10 Most Selected Sub-Faction

It’ll probably come as no surprise that the Hammers of Sigmar lead the table in the most played sub-faction. The appeal of Dragons and Dracothian units is just too great possibly.

Surprisingly for me, Skaventide is in fourth despite having possibly once of the most outdated books?

Top 10 Win rates for Sub-Factions with 20+ Games

Idoneth Deepkin/Fuethan top the charts showing that perhaps they’re the easiest faction to pick up and play? My own beloved Kruleboyz/Big Yellers prop up the rest of the table with a measly 30.3% win rate.

Stormcast Eternals/Hammers of Sigmar Analysis

So who’s their bogey enemy? Who do they lose to most often?

The data set is too small to have a any reliability at the moment, but Legion of the First Prince and Sons of Behemat/Breaker Tribe have had the most success against them.

If we reduce the opposition to Sub-Factions who have played them at least ten times then only the Ironjaws/Bloodtoofs have a favourable win ratio against them.

Ironjaws/Bloodtoofs Analysis

Again, the data set is to small to have any significance.

Seraphon/Thunder Lizard Analysis

Games Workshop

Friday Follow

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I don’t often follow the crowd… not least because I don’t understand it, or where it is headed, but this Friday I wanted to shout out two groups in advance of the tournament this weekend.

Purple Sparkly Unicorns

A great group based in the UK, often seen at tournaments in their understated club shirts, they are certainly more visible than the green of the Age of Chumps I wear. If you spot a grown hobbyist wearing a Unicorn it’ll be them. They’ve even been known to bring cuddly Unicorns with them! I’ve not seen them make up rules for them yet, and bring them on the table but there’s a first time for everything.

Give them a follow on Twitter and they’ll no doubt keep you informed of the action this weekend at March to War – an AOS 5 game tournament held at Element Games.

The Hobby Room

The second shout-out (or ‘Follow’ I suppose) is to the Hobby Room. Ceri & Ben run a tight ship, with lots of shows on Twitch and lots of hobby content online.

They have regular show times that they publicise on Twitch and have great Hobby Content. They are also both great to play against, although Ceri did beat up my poor Kragnos the last time we met, and Ben Morathi’d me to death (although with no bow snakes!)

They have coverage of the March to War as well this weekend as well as some live coverage of tables – so check them out if you can’t make the event. It’ll be a great show.

The Hobby Room also host the Pile of Potential which has prompted Peter to look at his collection and get painting again.

Give them both a follow and check on the March of War this weekend (22nd & 23rd January 2022)

— Declan

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Declan Waters, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Tournaments

Top Three Lists from Tempest (AoS)

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Scott runs a lot of tournaments up in Stirling, Scotland at Common Ground Games. Unfortunately I’ve not been to one yet, but it’s definitely on the list of places to go! Warmaster is also run up there.

His latest tournament has just finished, and he has been posting the results – and lists – online via his twitter account and on Tabletop.to.

So before you continue with this article, pop onto Twitter and give Scott a well deserved follow! https://twitter.com/_wee_men

…

Welcome back!! I hope you liked Scott’s feed – it’s full of great coverage from the event and well worth a read. I followed along all weekend to the trials and tribulations of the competitors.., and the Dragons!!

1st Place – Daughters of Khaine – Nathan Watson (5-0)

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
– Temple: Hagg Nar
– Mortal Realm: Ulgu
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: 

Leaders
Bloodwrack Shrine (190)*
– General
– Command Trait: Devoted Disciples  
– Artefact: The Ulfuri  
– Lore of Shadows: Steed of Shadows
Hag Queen (105)*
– Artefact: Khainite Pendant  
– Prayer: Blessing of Khaine
Morathi-Khaine (330)*
The Shadow Queen (330)*

Battleline
15 x Blood Stalkers (540)**
– Reinforced x 2
20 x Witch Aelves (240)**
– Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Witch Aelves (120)*
– Pairs of Sacrificial Knives

Units
5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (90)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Heart of Fury (55)

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Hunters of the Heartlands

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 101
Drops: 8

Nathan is rocking Morathi and the Bow Snakes and clearly did a lot of work here. The secret to Morathi’s success is no secret – she’s a beast! Being able to dish out good damage, knowing all the spell lore (interesting boost in the latest FAQ), and only taking 3 damage per player turn means that you can use her to block, kill big stuff and generally get in the way. If you’re opponent has no shooting she’s even better as she won’t suffer early wounds.

In AOS she is great and the FAQ made her stronger!

A word of warning though – this is not a pick up and play army… practice, practice, practice is the order of the day with this. There’s not many wounds available (101) and not a great save across the rest of the army.

Congratulations to Nathan.

2nd Place – Stormcast Eternals – Luke Garside (4-1)

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Beast Master
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Knight-Draconis (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Battle-lust
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Thunderous Presence
– Spell: Thundershock

Battleline
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
2 x Stormdrake Guard (340)*
– Drakerider’s Lance

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

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

Stormcast Eternals are lucky enough to have a great Warscroll and the ability to make it into battleline. And Luke has done this shortly after the models were released over the Christmas break. Stormdrake Guard have a mortal wound shooting attack, great movement, and decent combat output. And they can survive! At 340 points they are exceptional value despite the massive points increase before they were released.

This army is relatively simple… go forward … kill the world … don’t die!

But that’s doing Luke a dis-service and you have to play well to get a 4-1 with such other great armies around (*Edited – thanks to John B below!)

It will take time for the AoS community to work out how to deal with this, but they do seem very, very good and it’s difficult to see them not winning a 5 game tournament in the very near future.

3rd Place – Stormcast Eternals – John B (4-1)

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Living City
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Freeguild General on Griffon (290)*
– General
– Lance
– Command Trait: Ironoak Artisan
– Artefact: Spear of the Hunt
– Mount Trait: Soaring Guardian
Celestant-Prime, Hammer of Sigmar (325)*
Branchwraith (95)*
– Lore of Leaves: Lifesurge

Battleline
10 x Ironbreakers (115)*
10 x Ironbreakers (115)*
20 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (210)*
– Reinforced x 1

Units
10 x Shadow Warriors (120)*
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)*
– Reinforced x 1

Behemoths
Celestial Hurricanum (230)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 111
Drops: 1 

John B has another 1 drop army but very different from the Dragon list. I’ve seen similar, but never anything exactly like this… and it’s good! The Fulminators have a mortal wound shooting attack (see above!), the Celestant-Prime can arrive on the table on the game when needed and he has reach with the Crossbowmen.

It’ll be interesting to see this live to see how it plays… I’ve got little idea!

Wildcard! – Skaven – Cara Newby – 3-2

Peter Atkinson of Twitter, and Plastic Craic fame suggested that we pick a fourth army for our top three articles as an interesting list, one to watch for the future, or just because we like it.

I’ve chosen a Skaven list by Cara Newby.

Allegiance: Skaventide
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Master Moulder (95)*
– General
– Command Trait: Hordemaster
Master Moulder (95)**
– Artefact: Rabid Crown
Master Moulder (95)**
Master Moulder (95)***

Units
6 x Rat Ogors (285)*
– Mutation: Toughened Sinews
6 x Giant Rats (40)*
6 x Giant Rats (40)*
6 x Rat Ogors (285)**
– Mutation: Insanely Rabid
6 x Giant Rats (40)**
6 x Giant Rats (40)**
6 x Giant Rats (40)***
6 x Giant Rats (40)***
6 x Giant Rats (40)***
6 x Giant Rats (40)***

Behemoths
Hell Pit Abomination (240)*
– Mutation: Toughened Sinews
Hell Pit Abomination (240)**
– Mutation: Best-best Warpstone Spikes
Hell Pit Abomination (240)***
– Mutation: Accelerated Regeneration

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
***Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 152
Drops: 3

Cara was 3-1 going into the last round with a chance of a 4-1, and this list is great! Anyone who knows me, knows I love horde armies and this looks like a great example. I played a similar army at a 1 day THWG event last year and they are great at holding objectives, and stopping Cara getting Hold the Line must have been a real challenge.

Added to that the four monsters allow extra points from Battle Tactics including – at least – monstrous takeover. Added to that this must be fun to play against which is always something I look out for in a list.

Well done to Cara for 3-2 with a possible 4-1. I hope I’ll get a chance to see this in the flesh this year.

Thanks to Scott for running the tournament and keeping us all updated on Twitter… looks like everyone had a great time.

— Declan

Games Workshop

Top Three AoS Lists from Clash of Swords

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Elysium Wargames recently ran a 2 day, 5 game Age of Sigmar tournament. It was run by Twitterer Ellis Priestley at Elysium Wargames.

By all accounts it went well, and Tom Patton took it out with Sons of Behemat and a 5-0 result!

The event was run on BCP (Best Coast Pairings App), so I was able to grab

Now, without further ado – the winning lists.

1st Place – Sons of Behemat – Tom Patton (5-0)

Following the Winter FAQ and the significant change to the Kragnos warscroll, Tom has decided to try him out in a Gargant list… and didn’t it do well! With 2 Gatebreakers and Kragnos this army is quick, likely has a triumph and can dish out damage… and the 6+ ward saves are not shabby on models with so many wounds.

This list seems to work in a similar way to the 3 Gatekeeper & 2 Mini-Gargants lists.

It’s great to see the Destruction God getting some play now that he has a new scroll, and I don’t think this will be the last 5-0 we see with him in the list.

Kragnos is now a Beast!

2nd Place – Stormcast Eternals – Jacob Whitehouse – 4-1

I reported on the success of the Stormdrake Guard at Blackout at the end of last year and they are back again. This is definitely an army that I would fear playing against, and if you want to go 5-0 you’ll need practice against it. It’s quick, mobile, the unit of 4 is great at ‘Unleash Hell’. It’ll breath on you (mortal wounds) and then charge! Definitely ouch.

I don’t know what Jacob lost to, but the new speed of Destruction with Kragnos may be able to outspeed this… however be careful of losing Kragnos – he’s no longer better if these guys are around.

3rd Place – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Mikey Herbert(4-1)

It’s great to see the new book doing well so early upon release (this was pre-FAQ). With 2 big guys and lots of Plaguebearers I imagine that this works very similarly to the Gargant list – walk onto the objectives and don’t die!

And Plaguebearers are masters at this approach. They may not be putting out much damage but with 2 wounds each they will be sticking around for a while.

I reviewed Nurgle upon it’s release, so you can read my views on it in a series of articles starting here.

Thanks to Ellis & Elysium Wargames for making the results easier to find. Sounds like everyone had a great time!

— Declan

Games Workshop

Top Three Lists from Blackout (AoS)

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BlackoVt (Blackout V) was held in Cardiff on the weekend of the 12th & 13th December. This was the return of a much moved event due to COVID and the restrictions in place by the Welsh government – and the organiser’s wish to keep everyone safe.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend as it would have been my 4th week playing toy soldiers in a row… and may have got me in trouble!

The event is run by Chris Tomlin who has been in the community since at least 8th edition as part of a group from the South Coast of England called The Black Sun. Chris also runs the very successful team tournament – Brotherhood – which will return in 2022 for it’s second time.

The event was 5 rounds of Age of Sigmar and was attended by the great & the good of the Warhammer community, and was held at the new Firestorm Games location in Cardiff, Wales. Hopefully I’ll get there soon for some games!

Before I come to the lists I also wanted to shout out to a returning player who attended – Mo. For those who don’t know who Mo is he is the person who saved Age of Sigmar for the competitive community by bringing in ClashComp for his event Clash of Swords. He (and a team of supporting superstars) pointed every warscroll produced by Games Workshop and gave them a points value – whilst GW were running event where number of wounds mattered (so 2 goblins were the same as 1 chaos knight!). Mo saved us from having to play in this manner and his comp system was affectionately renamed MoComp.

So a cheer from me for Mo – it’s great to have you back and hope to see you at tournaments in 2022.

Now, without further ado – the winning lists.

1st Place – Cities of Sigmar – Mark Wildman (5-0)

Mark’s list appears to rely on the anvil of the Pheonix Guard – 4+ Ward – and the damage of the Fulminators… what a punch! As 4 drop it probably gave Mark the option of going first or second in some of his games – except against dedicated shooting lists. I’m told the Flaggelants made the army, so get painting them!

Look – still on Square bases on games-workshop.com

2nd Place – Soulblight Gravelords – Christian Moore (5-0)

Nagash before the recent changes was good (I would say very good), and the Knights must have provided the punch Christian needed. I wonder how many Hand of Dusts were attempted through the portal?

3rd Place – Stormcast Eternals – Adam Mumford (4-1)

Adam’s been playing a lot of Age of Sigmar since we were allowed to meet up again, and here he is again proving that the Dragons are definitely not good!! Wow – no idea how my Gitz would survive this; or my footslogging Brutes. Vicious.

Dragons… Coming to every tournament near you soon.

Thanks for Chris Tomlin for making the results available – including fighting through piles of paper army lists – and to AoS Shorts for collating them.

— Declan

Games Workshop

Ironjawz – A Competitive View

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Note – this article is for Ironjawz in AoS3. We are now in AoS4. Some of the article will still be relevant, but some of the rules may be different

Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.

But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it. Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)

With the Winter FAQ about to drop we wanted to take some time to talk about the new kids of the block, kicking butt and taking names… the Ironjawz! Since the Orruk Warclans book was released the Ironjawz have been climbing the stats and have appeared on tables everywhere in the UK and beyond.

What makes them so popular, and what is driving up this win-rate? We wanted to get the view of a tournament attendee and what better person than the Top Ironjawz player according to Bad Dice Podcast. We searched high and low, vale and dale and all across the UK but wouldn’t you know the person was sat here in Northampton all along!

I was as surprised as all our readers, so I demanded a recount… but blow me if it didn’t come up with my name again… So we’ve asked Declan to write a few words! (and talk about himself in the 3rd person for a bit for some reason).

Screenshot, before it all changes!

Who are the Ironjawz?

The Ironjawz are one of 3 allegiances within the Orruk Warclans book which was recently released. Along with Bonesplitterz and Kruleboyz they make up a book which you can run the allegiances separately (with limited model availability) or run them all in one list called Big Waaagh! Under the previous book Big Waaagh was the most popular list, but this has now pivoted to Ironjawz – although Kruleboyz are likely behind because fewer people have armies painted for them.

What is their playstyle?

Ironjawz love Smashing & Bashing and so they are an army that fights in close combat – none of the sneaky Lumineth shooting shennagins. This means that they will be attacking their opponent quickly and early in the game and hitting hard when they do so. Beware of the speed (up to 36″ + charge with the right Mount Trait) and the damage of their MawKrushas (Wyverns who fly because gravity itself is too scared to stop them).

Their Warchanters add to this damage, whilst the Gore Gruntas charge in with the MawKrushas and the Brutes slowly cross the table, before hitting like a steam train.

This means that they damage and then get damaged if the attacks don’t go as planned. So they are beatable, but as their opponent you do need to be careful.

A bit of everything in this one-drop. Apart from the Shaman… he’s at home!

Ironjawz Abilities

Ironjawz have 3 great abilities:

  • Smashing & Bashing – If an enemy unit is destroyed in combat by an Ironjawz unit, the Ironjawz player may immediately select another unit to fight
  • Mighty Destroyers – Hero phase free move if outside 12″ of enemy, pile in if within 3″ (no fighting), or charge otherwise
  • Waaagh – +1 to charge and -1 Rend

All of these abilities get the Ironjawz closer to the enemy, faster and they are great. A little care is needed with Mighty Destroyers as the 12″ rule for charging is regardless of whether you could make a charge or finish within 0.5″ of an opponent so a clever opponent can throw units forward to prevent the move being used.

Allegiance Abilities

There are 3 allegiance options for the Ironjawz but only two are regularly seeing play at the moment.

Ironsunz is the one I use as it gives a command ability to allow Ironsunz units to charge at the end of an opponent’s charge phase – perfect for counter charges with Brutes.

A small selection of my Brutes – the backbone of the Ironsunz!

Bloodtoofs makes Gore Gruntas battleline, and any Gore Gruntas that fought in a combat phase can make a pile in, move or charge at the end of the charge phase.

Both of these are great for speed, and getting into combat to do the Smashing and Bashing and get enemies killed. Again the Ironjawz do need to be in combat to do damage, but they do a lot whilst they are there and alive.

Megabosses – Command Abilities

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Maw Krushas and Megaboss special abilities (on their warscrolls). The Maw Krusha can issues the same command ability three times, and the Megaboss on Foot can do one twice – all for one command point. I’ve lost count of the number of redeploys I’ve done to stop Broken Ranks (step back one unit, step forward another) or Savage Spearhead (step up to my territory to stop the enemy). Or simply saving 3 units with Inspiring Presense. It’s a great ability – be warned!

Warchanters

The warchanters are the key to the army, although they only have 6 wounds on 4+ armour, but they use Vicious Fury which gives an Ironjawz unit +1 damage. This is critical to the Boars and Brutes and great on the Maw Krushas, but without it the army’s damage is severely reduced. Don’t leave home without 2 of them – and I’ve seen some Ironjawz players run 3!

Army Lists

I’ve run a few army lists that you can find in these articles

I also did well in War in the Heartlands with a similar list to my Carnage list. These are all Ironsunz lists, because I love Brutes and the counter charge ability is very complimentary to my playstyle. (Sit back, take a hit, punch… hard!)

The other army list available at the moment is Bloodtoofs and Gore Gruntas (pigs) massing for a charge. There is a 2 MawKrusha, 2 Warchanter, 24 Pigs list… and it is brutal! This list has done very well into the current meta, but before you start picking up Gore Gruntas wait for the Winter FAQ! Things may be changing.

How do I play them?

As alluded to above and with the lists in the other articles I play with 1 MawKrusha, 2 Warchanters, and lots of units – often being 10 or 11 drop. My favourite unit in the Destruction tomes – Rippa’s Snarlfangs – joins the army for some much needed speed, but you can leave these at home if you are going Bloodtoofs.

I tend to sit back, occasionally throwing the MawKrusha forward to krump, to get my Brutes in range so that I can charge in my opponent’s turn – or at least threaten to. I also make extensive use of Hand of Gork with the following combo (cheer Russ Veal of Facehammer fame for discussing this one):

Megaboss on Foot (you can use a MawKrusha) with Arcane Tome as the general. He then takes the Wizard Command Trait Touched by the Waaagh! This gives the Hand of Gork between +1 and +3 depending on causing D3 mortal wounds within 6″ (even the enemy if they are close enough). This turns a 50/50 spell into something much more likely to come off, and makes my Brutes appear in the strangest of places – exactly where my opponent doesn’t want them. Hand of Gork also forces opponents to stay on objectives in much the same way as a Fast ‘Un Maw Krusha.

How else can they play?

In a word Fast! The Bloodtoofs ability to make Gore Gruntas battleline and bringing 2 MawKrushas gives you a smashing & bashing army that no-one wants to fight. Swapping out a Maw Krusha for a Rogue Idol (Forgeworld, not in the book), means you can have a very powerful and hitty Battle Regiment – 1 drop. So you can decide who goes first. Just don’t face Morathi who can stop this tactic in it’s tracks.

How to beat them?

This being a Destruction book, it is obviously unbeatable (see also Gloomspite Gitz in the same position)… but if you wanted to beat them then you need to survive the alpha strike, and be able to do damage back to them.

Screens are coming back into the game and this is only a good thing although it does stunt the Ironjawz alpha strike capabilities. I bring 2 x Ardboyz and they are great in the mirror match either for holding objectives, or preventing the turn 1 charge by the GoreGruntas doing massive damage.

The Ironjawz are also surprisingly easy to kill – in combat or with shooting. A 4+ armour save (except for the Maw Krushas) means that most armies have something that can kill a Maw Krusha in 2 rounds, so if you can survive a charge (Morathi!) and get a few additional wounds in on the Ironjawz turn, you can be killing a Maw Krusha turn 1!

They also have very poor bravery for their size – just 6 on the Brutes & Gore Gruntas – so causing damage to multiple units can see models flee from battleshock – or means the Ironjawz player has to keep command points for inspiring presence.

Finally, remember that this is an objective game, so go after the objectives (unless your models are 1 wound and there are brutes), and don’t worry if the Ironjawz are ahead in turn 1 and 2 – it really is an alpha strike armour and a glass hammer and it can be stopped and then killed!

Good luck to the Ironjawz players out there – hope the Winter FAQ treats us well.

— Declan