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Age of Sigmar, Dracothion's Tail, Faction Focus, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Koatl's Claw, Meta Analysis, Order, Peter Holland, Seraphon, thunder Lizard

Seraphon Faction Breakdown – December 2023

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SUBFACTIONS

Overall, disregarding the unknown lists (lists which didn’t specify which subfaction they were) Fangs of Sotek appears to be the most subfaction at GTs with a win rate of 58%, while in RTT & Casual settings Dracothion’s Tail appears to have the run of the tables with a win rate 60%. Both however shake out at 55% across the formats and outperform the other subfactions by a fair bit.

Thunder Lizard and Koatl’s Claw both appear to struggle regardless of the format and neither can break into the 45-55% win zone that most people see as the ideal win rates.

Despite their lacklustre performance on the tables, Koatl’s Claw appears to be the go-to subfaction for most players. While Fangs of Sotek takes the 2nd spot.

Ramon Silva: I think they’re honestly one of the most solid written books because they hold a magical castle very well with good summoning and good spells

And then they also have the dinosaurs to play more of a timy type game. But that can also be successful in its own way.

Here we can see how the subfaction players generally perform at GTs. The grey bar shows how many players achieve 0 to 2 wins at a GT, if this is less than 50%, then that faction has a positive win rate, as shown in the yellow bar (those players who achieve 3 or more wins), the blue segment shows those who achieve 4 or more wins, and finally the green segment shows the percentage of players who go on to win all 5 games.

This chart can show a lack of balance via results. If all factions were perfectly balanced (along with player skills), then the opposing bars (i.e. 5-0 and 0-5, 3-2 and 2-3) would be the same length.

FACTION MATCHUPS

Note that these stats are across all game formats.

Slaves to Darkness appears to be the easiest faction for Seraphon player with a 66% win rate against the spikey boys. This is closely followed (probably unsurprisingly by Kruleboyz at 65% win rate, and Sylvaneth at 63%. Factions shown in the lighter green are favourable towards Seraphon with a win rate of between 55-60%. The yellow factions are ideally balanced against Seraphon, falling between the 45-55% bracket. Those in orange are between 40-45% win rate. Those in red and the factions that Seraphon struggles the most against with a win rate of less than 40%.

Ramon Silva: Obviously, an army wide five up spell ignore does wonders...

Michelle Anderson: On the stinky spectrum of 1-10, one being not stinky and ten being maximum stink aura of fifteen feet…..

Seraphon are def a solid 7 stinky.

Fabien Barbusse: We need to separate Coalesced stinky and Starborne stinky.

Ramon Silva: Yeah, like that’s the thing, too. I was thinking about after I said it’s a clear counter…

It’s only to half because to Big Lizzy’s, I don’t know how korne does so well…

But I theorize they trade better because they get to pick the fights better.

Peter Holland: I think we have to remember the matchup stats are skewed towards Koatl’s Claw and Fangs of Sotek.

ROUND PERFORMANCE

At the beginning of a GT, the game could go either way for Seraphon and with the pairings being completely random (in most cases) its down to the luck of the draw who the players may come up against.

Following the 1st round tie, the 2nd round appears to fall slightly more in Seraphon’s favour with a win rate in this round of 54%. This falls back again to essentially a coin toss in rounds 3 and 4 followed by a favourable matchup for Seraphon in Round 5.

WARSCROLL PERFORMANCE

This chart shows the win rates of lists which include the warscroll (in Blue) compared to those that don’t (in Orange).

The Ripperdactyl Riders and Chief appear to have a good effect on win rates for Seraphon, with lists that include these touching around the 58-59% win rate mark – however bear in mind looking at the next chart, that these warscrolls only appear in very few lists and so could need more data before this claim is substantiated.

Ramon Silva: I feel so bad for the engine lovers.

Peter Holland: But (and a big one), it only appears in 1% of the lists.

Lodivicus: I’d love to see the Starborne data and coalesced data split (as mentioned above). The one thing that I’d be most interested in is how Tzeentch is beating Seraphon more than OBR? That’s not something I expected, and I think it is noteworthy.

Ramon Silva: I mean, they also get bonuses from spellcasts going off, so….

WARSCROLLS NOT USED

  • Kixi-Taka
  • Hunters of Huanchi with Dartpipes
  • Klaq-Trok
  • Starblood Stalkers

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Tome Talks: Seraphon

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Welcome to the latest in our ‘Tome Talks’ series, in which we review a battletome via a balanced discussion – and with the benefit of a little hindsight and some hands-on testing.

Danny Wadeson: So – we’ve had the book for a while, but now seems a good time to judge it properly now that the new Season is underway and recent changes to things like coherence have allowed a lot of Seraphon units to really shine.

As we’ll be keeping this relatively high level, let’s start with the overall standouts. What, to you, are the things that make Seraphon, Seraphon – and where does this book really sing? Sell it to me!

Patrick German: I think to really look at Seraphon you can either dig into a few units, or look at the book as a whole. Seraphon have always been a flexible force, jumping between elite infantry and cavalry, huge monsters, and powerful wizards. I can say for sure that all of these still exist, but I’ve seen a lot more “magic castles” than anything else.

Lord Kroak still exists, and is a lynchpin unit for the book. Backing him up with another frogman, some skink wizards, and an Astrolith bearer can turn him from being a sniper and artillery piece into a factory that produces more skinks as it kills units.

I’ve always been a more flavor-over-competitive player, and I love the idea of putting a load of big monsters on the table. Stegadon is still a thing, and while it isn’t the most competitive choice, it’s good fun to throw seven or eight stegadons on the field and have them waddle around killing your opponent’s models is great.

Peter Holland: I think the appeal of Seraphon cannot be ignored. The model range is gorgeous, and really appeals to that 6 year old inside. After all, what 6 year old wouldn’t want an army of Dinosaurs?!

Coupled with that, in this particular GHB, they’re proving they have some tricks up their sleeves to compete at the top tables.

Patrick: I will say: the model range is gorgeous now. I was really happy for Seraphon players when they got so many new sculpts, because the old ones were looking very dated.

Danny: Yeah. They look GOOD. But how do they play? Obviously there are two very different flavours – the ‘magic (bouncy?) castle that Poots mentioned and the more bitey-fighty Coalesced. The former is high on movement and summoning shenanigans and can bring overwhelming amounts of magic to bear while the other has good old fashioned durability and toe to toe offence.

Peter – I think i know the answer but for the benefit of our readers – what do the stats say about which is getting more play and what’s tickling the podium?

Peter: It’s an interesting one. Fangs of Sotek are by far the most popular subfaction with 56% (45 players) of tournament players choosing them. They’re also overly successful with a win rate of 60%. However Dracothion’s Tail currently has the most success with 68% win rate.

While Starborne is seeing success, players who have taken coalesced are struggling.

Koatl’s Claw has had good representation (2nd most popular subfaction), but their win rate is in the doldrums at 38% currently.

I will add that Dracothion’s Tail and Thunder Lizard are very small sample sizes.

Patrick: I’m not surprised that Fangs of Sotek is doing so well. Out-of-phase movement is a very strong tool to have (just ask your friendly local Khorne player). The ability to redeploy three times in response to your opponents movement can set you up for excellent counter-punches or provide cheap screens as a roadblock, preventing a charge onto an objective. The fact that the first two instances of redeploy are free makes it even better.

Danny: They’re fun. Movement shenanigans are fun. It just gives you lots to do in the opponent’s turn too.

I can see why competitively Starborne are the go-tos – hero phase teleport, loads of summoning so that you can react to the board state and the above very strong sub-faction ability, combined with an excellent spell lore are hard to resist.

Let’s not forget the excellent Star Power abilities too, which give you just a wild suite of options. However – even for an experienced player like myself it can be quite draining to keep track of everything – spells, a parallel economy, and LOTS of separate aura ranges etc. And it can all fall apart quickly if a couple of key spells go wrong or the opponent has enough threat projection to get into you before the summoning ramps up.

Having just started trying out Coalesced recently, I’m glad to say that it offers a more chill, but still strong, playstyle. 20 Warriors are a helluva drug, and the added durability makes for a more ‘traditional’ and forgiving game.

On that note, let’s talk about Thunder Lizard – it’s been a wild ride for anyone with big dinos since the end of the last book and the new one – namely it’s much harder to buff them now and their sub-faction rule is totally different, with double monstrous actions which are of dubious utility.

Also, the Engine of the Gods had been…I don’t know how else to say it other than ‘fucked up’. Stegadons still feel ok – the ‘counts as ten’ is great for objective stealing but they feel expensive on the board. The less said about the Stegadon Chief, the better – which is a shame as vanilla Stegs feel like they need a force multiplier. Why? What did they do to my horny boys?

Patrick: Conspiracy says that GW likes to downplay the units that were doing well last edition. Skink Chiefs and EotGs were great, and now they are less great. Personally, I think that in an effort to find better internal balance in battletomes GW tends to try to move the good/bad/ugly more towards the middle. Sometimes they overshoot, though, like I feel they did with Kroak, who I feel is an absolutely steal at 410pts.

Danny: Kroak is probably still a bit too good – but the main thing is, he’s fun now. Varied abilities and less book-keeping, and FINALLY two excellent lores to know all of.

The spells were one of the huge weak points of the 2e book, but now they’re full of fun effects, leaving aside for a moment the whole ‘is it fun casting the same MW Spell 4 times in a row’ – the lores are banging – what are your highlights?

Patrick: Tepok’s Beneficence is a fun dark horse for me. Boosting a cheap screen to make the screen last a little longer can be great. Mystical unforging can have a similar effect as a debuff instead of a buff.

On the skink side, Cosmic Crush can be surprisingly good against durable units, hitting SCE unit, especially. Speed if Huanchi allows for more out-of-phase movement, and we’ve already touched on how good that can be.

Peter: Having done the breakdowns on lists that achieve 4+ wins the most common spells in those lists are:

– Merciless Blizzard (10)
– Hoarfrost (9)
– Speed of Huanchi (8)
– Comet’s Call (8)
– Cosmic Crush (6)
– Drain Magic (4)
– Rupture (4)
– Stellar Tempest (2)
– Tepok’s Beneficence (1)

Because hoarfrost on skinks is the bomb. Hoarfrost on units of skinks that can redeploy is the double bomb.

Tie that in with Lord of Celestial Resonance (which nearly every list takes) and the ability to generate Cosmic Power increases so that the Seraphon play can summon in yet more Skink units nearly every other turn.

Danny: So yeah, the Lores are great and plenty of good candidates for Hoarfrost. The question is, does the book support you getting these spells off? And the answer is, sure, in Starborne – where the combo is, cast Equilibrium with the Slann to give your other casters (probably a Skink Starpriest and Starseer, and possibly Kroak) +1, have everyone in the +1 to cast bubble from the Astrolith bearer, and then enjoy your native +1 on the Slann and +2 on Kroak, for something like 6 casts at +2, and 4 (from Kroak) at +4.

So what about the actual units? Seraphon have access to a pretty deep model selection although more than ever they’re very much split between Starborne/Coalesced. To some extent this is cool as it provides a distinct feel but it can also mean that, if you want to experience everything the book has to offer AND lean into the syneries, it feels like collecting two armies.

For example, my Starborne list is lizard wizards, Astrolith, 2x Chargers, skinks of various varieties, an Ark of Sotek, and a few flex points that I usually fill with a Salam…sorry, Chotec. My Coalesced lists are kroxigor and saurus warrior heavy, with only 1-2 wizards, and a Carnosaur – sometimes a Laser-don. Some of that stuff makes sense as a Summons in Starborne which does somewhat ease the pain of buying and painting them…

But either way, there are definitely some interesting warscrolls in the book. Before I do a screed – are there any stand outs you guys want to highlight, either from a competitive, design or other perspective?

Patrick: I mentioned earlier that the army had a well-deserved makeover when the new book came out. The new kits are absolutely gorgeous, and I think they capture the aggression and intimidation that an army of dinosaurs would have.

Specifically, I’ll call out the Kroxigors and Aggradon riders. Two units that had good rules, but the models themselves looked like they had just been pulled out of bed and weren’t fully awake. The new models are incredible, and I would give GW’s design team a huge amount of credit for finally making these monsters feel like monsters.

Danny: Agreed but I have issues with the warscrolls of each of those examples! Not from a strength standpoint – I’ve tried both and they have the right numbers in the right places – but I find their abilities frustratingly designed – and this is the start of a specific thread of bad design that you can trace through the book. It’s like they tried something new, and doubled down on it before testing and then couldn’t be bothered to change them.

For example – the Warspawned have an ability that gives them an extra attack if a skink model nearby dies. It’s a nice nod to the lore and older editions, and it’s not particularly hard to achieve – use skinks as a screen, have Krox just within 3″ behind them – job done.

But the issue in reality is that, on the actual board, this usually results in only a couple of extra attacks. And in Coalesced, there’s just no real other reason to take skinks, so soon as they’re dead, the ability can no longer be procced. The other rule that nods back to their WHFB formation is that Kroxigor can’t issue themselves commands (big dumb dinos!) but Skink unit champions can. Meaning there’s actually CONFLICT between the two rules – do you use skinks as a screen, given Krox aren’t particularly tanky, or keep them behind as a mobile command-giver? And In Starborne, it’s really hard to include Kroxigor and there’s no other synergy with them. So even though I love Kroxigor as a unit in their own right (in Coalesced), it’s just a frustratingly designed scroll.

Aggradons have a similar problem. They gain bonus attacks if they remain engaged at the end of a turn, but lose them whenever they end a turn out of engagement. In reality, I’ve found this has precisely one use – when you charge them in, they don’t kill something, they survive the hit back, and you win and take the double.

So, sure, it’s a neat little bonus to make up for lost models in a protracted engagement in a very specific circumstance but it’s very annoying that you could easily go multiple games without their signature ability ever coming into play.

And the book tries to carry this conceptual blood frenzy into the battle tactics – which are fine, overall – but the one that baffles me is ‘Pack Hunters’, which wants you to pick an enemy unit within 3″ of an Aggradon unit and for it to be within 3″ of 2 Aggradon units at the end of the turn.

When you think this through, that’s such a niche scenario as to be practically nonsensical. ‘Stampede of Scales’ – ‘have 3 monsters run and each to end within 6″ of one of those monsters, AND be wholly within enemy territory’.

Now, given there’s no way to make Seraphon monsters run and charge, this is basically asking you to run your three precious monsters into enemy territory and… do nothing else. I can see this working well when you’ve tabled the enemy already but otherwise… how does this interestingly play into your strategy?

The book enhancements have a slightly different design issue, and it’s one that has unfortunately reared its ugly head in a fair few other books. Simply put, they’re divided into ‘fluffy but a huge gamble’ (and these are usually once-per-game effects) and ‘overwhelmingly obvious competitive choice’. I’m all for supporting fluffier options but I stand by my claim that it’s more fun for everyone involved if there’s an actual meaningful choice between varied effects – that would also lead to more varied (and therefore fun) list building.

Rant over..!

Patrick: Which is where conversations about internal balance come into play as a whole. I’ve said for a long time that the Idoneth Deepkin tome is one of the better examples of internal balance. Everything has a place and a use, and we see that in GT articles where no two Idoneth lists look the same.

Peter can provide specific detail(and let me know if I’m wrong) but Seraphon were mono-build for a long time. Take Lord Kroak, take Thunder Lizard, take three Bastiladons, take Cogs, push the “win” button. I’m afraid that the book hinges so thoroughly on Kroak and spellcasting that it’s still competitively mono-build.

Proper internal balance is hard to achieve, and GW frequently misses the mark.

Peter: Yeah, I agree. Looking at the competitive lists that go 4+ wins, Lord Kroak, the Astrolith Bearer and a Slann Starmaster appear in every list. Along with usually, two units of Skinks and a unit of Warriors. On top of that, they all take Malevolent Maelstrom as well. This brings the points of your core competitive units to 1215. Leaving possibly only 785points worth of true choice.

LEADERS
Lord Kroak (410)
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)
Slann Starmaster (275)

BATTLELINE
Skinks (90)
Skinks (90)
Saurus Warriors (180)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (30)

TOTAL POINTS: 1215

Patrick: Every. List.

That goes beyond a balance problem. We’re fully in over-tooled and under-costed territory.

Peter: Every Competitive List that goes 4 wins or more.

Patrick: Fair point.

Danny: And it doesn’t necessarily mean Kroak is OP – it’s rather that the other options, especially Coalesced – don’t have a good viable alternative.

But either way, in summary – a real mixed bag in terms of enhancements, with most of them being consigned to the ‘maybe one day for fluff bin’, and the usual spread of pointless Grand Strats with one competitively decent if not terribly inspired one (have a Seraphon unit in each quarter). Mostly good warscrolls with some glaring lowlights, design if not efficiency wise.

And one last time I’d like to say – what were they thinking with the Engine of the Gods? You get #feelsbad just looking at the ability table on the scroll.

But overall, I do think Starborne feel like cosmic wizard lizards and by and large, Coalesced now look and feel like big stompy chompers, so in terms of overall player fantasy, it’s probably largely a success. Both internal and external balance issues can be address to some extent with future points changes, but can never account for the design failings.

Any last words from you gents before we make like a skink and re-roll our redeploy out of here?

Patrick: I’m not a fan of competitive mono-build, but overall I’m pleased with the book. The model range and magic are great, and hopefully we see some changes in the future to boost the less-used units.

Peter: I think the book is OK and the models are great. This particular handbook may be favouring them slightly more than past ones, but that’s the way of things sometimes.

Danny: My final final_finalV2 thought is that, yes we know double frog is good with Krondspine but I don’t want to even get into it. Overall I think there are 3/4 strong sub-factions. I still think further points tweaks are needed, and even though I’m disappointed in some of the design space – fangtastic new models, a variety of play-styles and a good core internal balance (with just a few outliers on either end) make for a fun book with depth and character. Now someone go forth and find a Thunder Lizards build!

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Top Three AoS Lists for Straight Edge Wargaming GT

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This is the top three AoS lists for the Straigyt Edge Wargaming GT that took place in Sweden on the 11th and 12th of March. It involved 14 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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

Allegiance: Kruleboyz
– Warclan: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Swampboss Skumdrekk (290)*
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)**
– Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)**
– Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist
Murknob with Belcha-banna (80)*
– Aspect of the Champion: Tunnel Master
Killaboss on Corpse-Rippa Vulcha (220)**
– General
– Command Trait: Supa Sneaky
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Swamp: Nasty Hex
Skragrott, The Loonking (160)*
– Allies

Battleline
10 x Gutrippaz (150)*
10 x Gutrippaz (150)*
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*

Units
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
The Burning Head (30)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 160 / 400
Wounds: 137
Drops: 2

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Skink Priest (120)*
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Skink Starpriest (140)*
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Slann Starmaster (290)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
– Aspect of the Champion: Leadership of the Alpha
Engine of the Gods (300)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Spell: Bind Endless Spell
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse

Battleline
10 x Skinks (80)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (80)**
– Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
30 x Skinks (240)**
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
– Reinforced x 2

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (260)**
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (260)

Endless Spells and Invocations
Horrorghast (70)
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 98
Drops: 5

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Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Mortal Realm: Hysh
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
– The Lore of the Damned: Daemonic Speed
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
Be’Lakor, the Dark Master (355)*
– The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation
6 x Varanguard (580)*
– General
– 6x Fellspear
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced x 1

Battleline
10 x Chaos Knights (460)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Eroding Icon
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Chaos Knights (230)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
9 x The Unmade (80)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided

Units
1 x Cockatrice (105)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (70)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

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

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Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Legion: Petrifex Elite
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (340)*
Mortisan Soulmason (120)*
– Lore of Mortisans: Empower Nadirite Weapons
Mortisan Boneshaper (110)*
– General
– Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefact: Godbone Armour
– Lore of Mortisans: Reinforce Battle-shields
– Aspect of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage

Battleline
30 x Mortek Guard (420)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– Reinforced x 2
30 x Mortek Guard (420)*
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– Reinforced x 2
3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)*
3 x Necropolis Stalkers (170)*

Behemoths
Gothizzar Harvester (200)*
– Weapon: Soulcrusher Bludgeons

Endless Spells & Invocations
Bone-tithe Shrieker (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 1

Final Tournament Placings

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Top Three AoS Lists for GT Wargame Garrison Madrid

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This is the top three AoS lists for the GT Wargame Garrison Madrid that took place in Spain on the 27th and 28th of January. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

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: Seraphon
– Army Type: Coalesced
– Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Engine of the Gods (300)
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Prayers: Curse
1 x Lord Kroak (450)*
– Spells: Stellar Tempest
1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)*
– Aspects of the champion: Tunel master
1 x Skink Priest (120)*
– Prayers: Heal
1 x Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (200)**
– General
– Command Traits: Prime Warbeast
– Celestite Greatblade
– Artefacts: Fusil of Conflagration
– Mount Traits: Beastmaster
1 x Knight-Zephyros (100)**

BATTLELINE
10 x Saurus Warriors (100)*
– Saurus Warrior Alpha
– Stardrake Icon Bearer
– Wardrummer
– Celestite Spear and Powerful Jaws
5 x Saurus Guard (120)**
– Saurus Guard Alpha
– Stardrake Icon Bearer
– Wardrummer
10 x Saurus Warriors (100)**
– Saurus Warrior Alpha
– Stardrake Icon Bearer
– Wardrummer
– Celestite Spear and Powerful Jaws

BEHEMOTH
1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (260)**

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

TERRAIN
1 x Realmshaper Engine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Warlord
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Do comets rain on the plain in Spain? They do when Kroak is around! He’s fallen a little out of fashion recently in favour of the no-name, whipper-snapper Slann, but he still does the job, as evidenced here – supported by the ubiquitous Engine, Priest, Astrolith (even more important for Special K given his spammable but short range spell) and…

checks notes

A Scar-Vet on Carnosaur!? Fair play to the lad, with their recent points drops they just might cut the mustard as a fast, whiffy but potentially killy monster. Of course, now we’re into the new season, we see the inevitable allied Knight-Zephyros, who is just a stone-cold scoring piece due to her constant teleporting.

Overall, a pretty interesting twist on the Lizards with their new points, and a good result for Alfonso. Get ready to see a lot more of the little Azyros…

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Army Faction: Disciples of Tzeentch
– Army Subfaction: Hosts Duplicitous
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Curseling (180)*
– General
– Command Traits: Cult Demagogue
– Spells: Shield of Fate, Arcane Suggestion
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master
1 x Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (140)*
– Spells: Shield of Fate, Arcane Suggestion
1 x Kairos Fateweaver (440)**
1 x Magister (120)**
– Spells: Shield of Fate, Glimpse the Future
1 x Changecaster (150)**
– Artefacts: The Eternal Shroud
– Spells: Levitate, Bolt of Tzeentch

BATTLELINE
10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)*
– Iridescent Horror
– Pink Horror Icon Bearer
– Pink Horror Hornblower
– Split and Split Again
10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)*
– Pink Horror Hornblower
– Iridescent Horror
– Pink Horror Icon Bearer
– Split and Split Again
10 x Horrors of Tzeentch (Pink) (250)*
– Pink Horror Hornblower
– Iridescent Horror
– Pink Horror Icon Bearer
– Split and Split Again

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (70)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
1 x Daemonic Simulacrum (70)

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

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

The future is here with the new GHB, and the future is pink…at least as far as Disciples of Tzeentch are concerned. With Bounty Hunters gone away, Pink Horrors are very much back on the menu as one of the top tarpits in the game, and Juanma has taken 3 x 10 Pinks to really maximise their board control. In addition, by choosing the sub-faction Host Duplicitous, an enemy can be prevented from retreating if the Tzeentch unit has 10 or more models, keeping them in place for some incoming spells. Host Duplicitous can also bring back 5 Pink Horrors once per game on a 4+, but it’s only once per battle regardless of how many units are destroyed and there’s no re-roll: this is Tzeentch, not Gitz!

Pink Horrors are also an excellent screen for the Galletian Champions that want to be slinging spells from the back lines while scoring battle tactics for not being dead and there is one unit for each of the Champions: Curseling, Magister and Changecaster, with the option to summon in additional Changecasters if necessary. The importance of keeping those Pinks around for as long as possible is clear from the Shield of Fate spell cropping up three times on the list to try and get that 5+ ward save. Arcane Suggestion can also be helpful here, with one of the options that Tzeentch players can pick being to reduce hit and wound rolls by 1. Park the Changecaster or Kairos wholly within 12” of a unit of Pinks, then there is an additional -1 to hit on the unit, meaning that All Out Attack would be wasted. Though still only with a 5+ save, a 5+ save followed by a 5+ ward with -1 to hit and wound makes those little daemons hang around a lot longer than they should. A really hammer unit like 10 chosen can still get through them with double fight, but then they’ll be well within spell range and with no 5+ ward against mortals on their warscroll, that’s a trade that favours the Tzeentch player significantly.

In terms of the tech on each Champion, the Curseling general has Cult Demagogue as their command ability, meaning that a double on the dice makes the first casting roll unbindable (and worth a bonus fate point). While lesser (more honest?) armies would roll the dice, Tzeentch can just pick two Destiny Dice and, even if it’s a pair of twos, the casting value 8 Arcane Sacrifice would still go off. The Curseling also has what seems to be the Aspect of the Champion of choice (at least so far): Tunnel Master. This Aspect allows a model to redeploy anywhere on the battlefield outside of 9” of the enemy during the movement phase instead of moving normally. With some armies, this could leave a hero isolated, but Tzeentch can just summon up some Horrors to be the bodyguard for this unit. On some of the new battle plans, that could mean an extra point here or there to turn a loss into a win or at least a draw in close games.

On the subject of close games, Juanma did really well going 3.5/5 with their only loss being against Teclis and Lumineth Realm Lords and even that was only with an 11-9 differential score (that is, a 1-2 point scoring difference at the end of the game). Three more points across two games could have been enough for the 5-0 at the event, underlining what a great weekend Juanma and the Disciples had.

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Army Faction: Nighthaunt
– Army Subfaction: The Quicksilver Dead
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Krulghast Cruciator (150)*
– General
– Command Traits: Cloaked in Shadow
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Seal of Shyish
– Aspects of the Champion: Fuelled by Ghurish Rage
1 x Guardian of Souls (150)*
– Chill Blade
– Artefacts: Pendant of the Fell Wind
– Spells: Shademist
1 x Spirit Torment (120)*
1 x Lady Olynder (340)*
– Spells: Shademist

BATTLELINE
5 x Hexwraiths (170)*
– Hellwraith
20 x Dreadscythe Harridans (320)**
– Slasher Crone
10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)**
– Slasher Crone
6 x Spirit Hosts (260)**

BEHEMOTH
1 x Black Coach (290)
– Reaper Scythe

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Warlord
**Galletian Veterans

TOTAL POINTS: (1960/2000)

Nice little twist on Nighthaunt, with the less seen Quicksilver Dead. The list also saw the return of the Black Coach and Lady Olynder, both of whom haven’t had a lot of airing with the Scarlet Doom lists. The Nighthaunt face off against Scarlet Doom in round 4, saw a stalemate so we can’t say which is better yet.

Still, other than Olynder, we have all of the usual suspects to increase the Harridan’s resistance. They’re still a great warscroll, so 30 is no hardship, especially with the points increase on Bladegheist. Harridan’s are a bit harder to use, but ideally, you want to get them close and charge. Preferably after inflicting some wounds through either mortals or ranges (another reason for the Black Coach). Charge or shoot a unit with the Black Coach and then hit it with the Harridans, they will now be hitting and wounding on 3s, and cause -1 on to wound rolls, adding protection for themselves, and the Black Coach.

A well thought out list, and fun to play. Bringing some different models to the table, Andres is to be commended.

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Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
– Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty
– Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Vampire Lord (140)
– General
– Command Traits: Pack Alpha
– Spells: Soulpike
1 x Belladamma Volga (200)*
– Spells: Spirit Gale
1 x Necromancer (130)*
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Overwhelming Dread
– Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur
1 x Vampire Lord (140)*
– Spells: Amethystine Pinions
– Aspects of the Champion: Tunnel Master

BATTLELINE
40 x Deadwalker Zombies (240)*
10 x Dire Wolves (130)*
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)*
10 x Dire Wolves (130)*

BEHEMOTH
1 x Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*

OTHER
20 x Grave Guard (280)*
– Seneschal
– 2 x Standard Bearer
– 2 x Hornblower
– Great Wight Blade

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

2-2-1 is an odd scoreline, and those must have been some nail-biting games! Guillermo has opted for a slightly heavier GC presence than Soulblight would normally bother with, packing double vamp lords, which makes sense as their Tome Celestial battle tactics are definitely not going to help them with scoring this season.

Now that bounty hunters have gone the way of the dodo, blobs of zombies are back on the menu! Dire Wolves continue to be fantastic either way – and here backed up by Belladamma for the fluffy (pun intended) bodyguard rule they provide.

Sadly, there’s a Spinedog – but to be fair to the ‘Blight, they’re in a tough spot in the new season due to their fragile and slow GCs – until the new book comes out, we may see them struggle, so kudos to Guillermo for a strong finish out of the gate.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Beasts of chaos, Blessed Sons, Chaos, Fangs of Sotek, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gavespawn, Hammers of Sigmar, Heartwood, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Order, Seraphon, Stormcast Eternals, Sylvaneth, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Six AoS Lists for CanCon 2023

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This is the top six AoS lists for the CanCon 2023 that took place in Australia on 21st and 22nd of January. It involved 202 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Six 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 Six AoS Lists

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
– Greatfray: Gavespawn
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Protect the herdstone
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)**
– General
– Command Trait: Unravelling Aura
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Dark Storms: Sundering Blades
Great Bray-Shaman (100)**
– Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Wild Rampage
Beastlord (95)**
– Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade

Units
6 x Dragon Ogors (290)*
– 6x Draconic War glaives
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Gors (70)***
– Gor-Blades & Beastshields
10 x Gors (70)***
– Gor-Blades & Beastshields
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc of Beasts of Chaos (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)
– 10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Tzaangors of Beasts of Chaos (175)
– 10x Pair of Savage Blade
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)**

Endless Spells
Chronomantic Cogs (70)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Warlord
***Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 168
Drops: 11

Bests of Chaos (sic) run roughshod over another big tournament. And why shouldn’t they? Unthinking beasts – they’re just following their nature, going with the flow – what fault is it of theirs if no puny tree-man, hungry-man, rat-man, green-man or hungry-man-but-further-away can stand up to them?

Composition wise, we have the core HQ, the usual dragon ogors, but only to the tune of 6 to make space for twelve Enlightened on Discs and 2x 10 Tzaangors. Plus, of course, some of the annoyingly good little chaps who don’t cost enough.

Anyway, the previews have started for their new book, so speculation is rife as to whether they’ll receive the necessary re-writes to corral the herd. I hope they do, because there’s only so many times I can think of new ways to sneak my ‘NERF BoC FOR THE LOVE OF GORS’ agenda into these top 3s.

Nevertheless, taking down any tournament this big deserves praise so well done to Geordie. And to be fair, you don’t see Tzaangors that often, and they’re cool.

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Continuous Expansion
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Slann Starmaster (285)****
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Engine of the Gods (285)***
– Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Skink Starpriest (130)****
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Skink Priest (120)****
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Skink Priest (120)****
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Units
30 x Skinks (225)**
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Skinks (75)**
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
5 x Saurus Knights (110)*
– Lances
5 x Saurus Knights (110)*
– Lances
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)***
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)***

Endless Spells
Horrorghast (40)

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Linebreaker
****Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 11

So Seraphon just got a lot more expensive, and Corey’s list here will be one of the last to enjoy their old ‘bargain’ prices.

In the meantime, it works as we’ve come to expect. Slann as magic powerhouse, Engine of the Gods as a mixed phase utility, well, engine, and a mixture of skink support priests, one of the starry variety.

(Slightly) interestingly, Corey brings so many skinks you’d expect them to be in Fangs of Sotek – but no! We’re in Thunder Lizard still, so one of those two bastiladons can still double fire, stacked with Skink priest buffs. The big skink blob I imagine is meant to capitalise on the durable prayer platform that is the Engine, getting Curse off on a juicy target (on a 3+ while near terrain within their own territory due to their Primeval Domain rule) for the 60 skink shots to fish for some 6s.

We also have 2x 5 knights here, who made a surprise comeback this season as cost-efficient bounty hunters with weight of attacks – but obviously, that’s a tactic going more extinct than the dinosaurs dodo.

Big gratz on the 5-0 with a balanced Seraphon list – shame it’s now about 75 pts more expensive, lacking its most useful battalions, and doesn’t play nicely into the new realm rules. Seraphon could be about to experience a serious lull going into their new book – but that’s fine, they’re cold-blooded, they will have their time in the sun again.

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Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Blessed Sons
– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Bloab Rotspawned (320)**
– Lore of Malignance: Plague Squall
Morbidex Twiceborn (320)***
Orghotts Daemonspew (320)
Lord of Afflictions (230)**
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm
Plague Priest (100)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Units
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (125)*
9 x Corvus Cabal (80)***
5 x Chaos Chosen (240)***
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Core Battalions
*Expert Conquerors
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 101

I hope everyone enjoyed those Expert Conquerors while they lasted. While not as egregious as Bounty Hunters, I can’t say that I’m sad to see it go. Joel made use of them with a triple Rotmire in the same way that many Nurgle players do. It’s interesting to watch Nurgle over the course of this edition since they evolved from pure fly spam to bringing hero hammer + Rotmire creed.

And what a hero hammer this list is. 5 heroes are in play, with all of them being the classic nurgle combination of decent damage output and great resilience (you could even say they are disgustingly resilient). Joel has also brought along a couple of Slaves to Darkness allies to fill in the gaps that Nurgle armies tend to have. The Corvus Cabal brings some much-needed mobility to grab early objectives and the Chaos Chosen are an excellent vehicle for damage output.

Looking forward, I’m not sure that this list will need much adjustment for the new season. Joel already has a pair of solid Galletian Champions, some excellent potential Bodyguards, and the ability to reliably score three or four battle tactics without sweating too much. Overall, I’m excited to see what changes are made for the next GT.

Congratulations to Joel. He brought a well-crafted list, and played it effectively to achieve a 5-0.

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Fangs of Sotek
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Slann Starmaster (285)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Might
– Spell: Stellar Tempest
Skink Starpriest (130)*
– Spell: Hand of Glory
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (155)*
– Artefact: Serpent God Dagger

Units
30 x Skinks (225)*
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
– Reinforced x 2
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Salamander Hunting Pack (280)*
– Reinforced x 1
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
– Allies

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1985 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 92
Drops: 1

Another 5-0 Seraphon list, this time with added Spinedog! Boy, am I glad that’s become a rare occurrence. Of course, it’s still a powerful piece, and on paper, it does make sense for Seraphon, given they lack an otherwise durable bully piece.

Henry has also brought some Salamanders in this particular iteration of the standard Fangs list (buff pieces, loads of skinks), which play really well into the Starborne teleport and provide an excellent dual-phase threat.

All in all it’s clear how this list hurts you – it’s a kind of techy twist on the ‘pin-cushion’ archetype, with excellent objective play in a handy one drop for, most likely, forcing opponents to move up into a much easier charge range of the Spinedog.

Gratz to Henry, and here’s hoping the new Seraphon book makes it less appealing than ever to take the ‘dog!

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Allegiance: Sylvaneth
– Glade: Heartwood
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Arch-Revenant (120)*
Branchwych (130)*
– General
– Command Trait: Spellsinger
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Deepwood: Verdurous Harmony
Drycha Hamadreth (335)*
– Lore of the Deepwood: Regrowth

Units
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (460)*
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)*
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Tree-Revenants (110)*
3 x Revenant Seekers (235)*
3 x Aetherwings (65)*

Endless Spells
Spiteswarm Hive (40)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Season
Season of Blugeoning

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 112
Drops: 1

Drycha! You love to see it. The evil tree spirit in a mech suit is still a relatively rare sight given her competition in Durthu and Alarielle, but her ability to choose between 10 extra melee or shooting attacks makes her a fast, durable and flexible piece that I don’t think gets enough love.

Gary here has gone heavy with Kurnoh – a reinforced blob of both the shooty and scythy variety (both of which, as always, are backed up by the +1 to wound aura of the Arch-Revanant). Then, just the one unit of teleporty tree revs and a fantastic support unit of Seekers. It’s a nice balanced list with huge reach, two big blobs that will keep regrowing (via Seekers and Verduous Harmony) if you don’t have the ability to take them down fast enough, and the tactical Drycha option.

The fact it could handle such a diverse set of opponents – the magic dominance of Tzeentch, through the ranged punch of Underguts Ogors and even a semi-mirror – en route to the rare Sylvaneth 5-0 is testament to the general and how adaptable the list is. It’s really cool.

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Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)**
– Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
Knight-Vexillor (120)*
– Meteoric Standard
Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Thundershock
– Prayer: Translocation

Units
2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)*
2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)*
2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)**
2 x Dracothian Guard Tempestors (220)**
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)*
5 x Judicators with Skybolt Bows (200)**

Everblaze Comet (90)
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

Holy Command
Holy Command: Thunderbolt Volley

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 98
Drops: 2

If you follow Stormcast chat on Australian servers, this list might not be a surprise. Why such a skew list and why does it work – first credit to the General, but this is a durable shooting list which doubles down on Mortal Wounds. Each Vexillor can grant a re-roll charge to a unit within 12″. And each Vexillor can be deployed from Azyr (Scions of the Storm). So one play is to use the Vexillors to buff important charges after moving just outside 9″ (no redeploy). Or drop both just beyond 9″, allowing the Tempestors to shoot, then charge. Enormous flexibility and mobility. Backed by Judicators with a double shoot potential. The strength of this list is the extreme difficulty opponents have in stopping or limiting scorring. The Tempestor units with 12 wounds need serious attention to remove. They will tie up big threats turn after turn, unlike the larger units that some of the biggest hitters can remove in a turn.

Then there is the Mortal Wound output, another nice trick, Everblaze Comet to drop a bomb on any castles, with a CV of 6, Master of Magic makes it almost certain to go off when you want it. That with Thundershock to short those charges (leaving a CP for Unleash). And each of the Vexillors has a mini Everblaze. The list is a 2 drop (all of the best SCE lists try for minimum drops) for that small advantage. Scoring wise, this list wasn’t just good at scoring it’s own Battle Tactics but preventing some of the opponents (sometimes a lot of theirs). This list was rated as one of the strongest at Cancon and scored extremely well in the first 3 rounds before falling away in the last 2. Still major victories but not as many “other” points as some of the higher ranked lists. To be expected with the final pairings being into stronger opponents. It’s innovative and effective, and it is fantastic to see SCE from a different angle.

Tournament Placings

For a full run down of all the tournament positions, why not visit Stats and Ladders. It’s a brand new site that allows tournament organisers to… well… organise their tournaments. I have to say, it’s incredibly easy to use, and the best bit, it’s free!

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gnarlroot, Knights of the Empty Throne, Order, Seraphon, Skaventide, Slaves to Darkness, Sylvaneth, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for Shanghai Slaughter

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for Shanghai Slaughter that took place in the China on 14th and 15 January. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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: Seraphon
– Army Type: Coalesced
– Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak

LEADERS
Engine of the Gods (285)*
– General
– Command Traits: Prime Warbeast
– Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration
– Mount Traits: Beastmaster
– Prayers: Curse
Celestant-Prime (325)*
Lord Kroak (450)*
Skink Starpriest (130)*
– Spells: Hand of Glory

BATTLELINE
Saurus Guard (115)*
Saurus Knights (220)*
– Celestite Warspear and Powerful Jaws
Skinks (75)*
Saurus Knights (110)*
– Celestite Warspear and Powerful Jaws

OTHER
Razordon Hunting Pack (210)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Saurus units riding the crest of Seraphon power? Seraphon claiming number one with an Engine of the Gods and Kroak isn’t new. But Saurus Knights and Razordons in Thunder Lizard? It looks like Thunder Lizard was taken for double cosmic engine rolls and the Fusil of Conflagration. Thunder Lizard really boosts the power of an Engine and with Kroak can push out a lot of mortals. This is mostly a short range/melee army though, with the Engine’s 8” range working really well with the 9” range of curse. The Razordon’s bring 18” range (12D6 shots), but are most useful if the enemy gets close where they can both unleash hell and shoot at the end of the charge phase. Essentially, Seraphon Leadbelchers, you can’t leave them, but you can’t charge them.

The Saurus Knights are usually left at home, they don’t accept buffs as well as Skinks but this army is playing heavily into their Predatory-Fighter (+1 attack for Jaws attacks) and Scaly Skin (-1 damage). And they aren’t GVs. Combined with additional damage on the charge and the potential mortals on 6s, the double unit is pretty scary. A big part of the list, though, is the Celestant Prime – arguable if he is worth the cost in Seraphon, but it worked here. His guaranteed charge and damage profile is effective at removing key pieces like MawCrushas, Durthu, or Warsong Revenant. With Kroak shutting down spells it’s not hard to see why Sylvaneth struggled, the same for Skaven. Neither do well with Mortals. Damage reduction limits some of the impact of Ironjawz and the limited rend, but large number of attacks counters Nighthaunt. The army still has Seraphon’s ability to score while countering a lot of the unique abilities of his opponents army. It’s a really well thought out counter list.

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Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Gnarlroot
– Season: The Dwindling
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Arch-Revenant (120)*
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing
Treelord Ancient (360)*
– Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing
Warsong Revenant (305)*
– General
– Command Traits: Spellsinger
– Spells: Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony

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

OTHER
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatswords (500)*
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Vengeful Skullroot (60)
1 x Spiteswarm Hive (40)
1 x Gladewyrm (50)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

Nikola here has brought a fairly standard Gnarlroot magic build here, with the Treelord Ancient and Warsong Rev combo for putting down a set of trees early doors with the Ancient for Warsong to use Spellsinger to cast his nasty AoE through.

It’s backed up by a compliment of reinforced Sword ‘Noth – a less popular choice than scythes because of their lesser rend – but a more balanced one overall, I think, due to their potential for MW output against targets who scoff at even 3 rend (such as Nighthaunt for example).

Happily for me, an endless spell enjoyer, the list packs all three Sylvaneth specific ones, and why not? They allo have fantastic utility and get be got off nicely in Gnarlroot with the ‘3d6 pick best 2’ to cast and re-roll from The Dwindling. Not only are they some of the best looking faction specific spells but they really do give the army a lot of options – horrorghast effects, healing, charge bonuses and more – love to see it!

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Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Army Type: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Grand Strategy – Take what’s theirs

LEADERS
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)*
– Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Demonic speed

Varanguard (290)**
– General
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Fellspear

BATTLELINE
Varanguard (290)**
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Ensorcelled Weapon
Varanguard (290)**
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Ensorcelled Weapon
Splintered Fang (100)*
The Unmade (80)*
Corvus Cabal (80)*
Corvus Cabal (80)*

BEHEMOTH
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*

OTHER
Ogroid Theridons (190)*
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Great Axes

BATTALIONS
Battle Regiment*
Overlords of Chaos**

TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

Great to see a good run out with the new Slaves book! Although, less happy to see Spinedog – and do bear in mind that the new focus on foot heroes in the forthcoming season will likely mean a list such as this has to change in some big ways.

In the meantime though, it leans into the the obvious highlights of the new book – triple Varanguard in Khorne with lances for that sweet rend 3 charge in one unit, and two units of Ensorcelled Weapons for fast chaff/lower armour targets. With each unit able to fight twice, that’s potentially a lot of pressure coming at you early.

Andy also leans into a bevvy of tech cultists, which is a fantastic section of the new book. Splintered Fang for reliable MW output, The Unmade for running up and turning off Redeploy to help those Varanguard make their charges and not end up in no-man’s land, and double Corvus Cabal for deepstriking and scoring battle tactics. Note – in the new season we lose Barge – so one unit of Corvus for Desecrate is probably going to be the new jam.

It’s interesting that he’s packed in some Theridons – to be fair, they’re a cost effective if not at all durable counter-punch, so why not?

An interesting list that took down what I would imagine are some fairly green match ups, losing only to Nikola’s Sylvaneth, who are quickly proving to be a red matchup for the new chaos bois! Andy – be a hero and take 2nd place next time, without Spinedog! My commenting fingers are ready.

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Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Thanquol (415)*
– Warpfire Projectors
– 3 x Warpfire Braziers
– Spells: Skitterleap
Warlock Bombardier (115)*
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Arch-Warlock (155)*
– General
– Command Traits: Deranged Inventor
– Artefacts of Power: Esoteric Warp Resonator
– Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!

BATTLELINE
Skryre Acolytes (75)*
Skryre Acolytes (75)*
Stormfiends (960)*
– 3 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows
– 3 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows
– 3 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour

OTHER
Warp-Grinder (65)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (50)
1 x Soulscream Bridge (80)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Skaven is one of those armies that I love to see pop up in these lists. Much like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

In this case, we get nearly half of the points of the list dumped into one 9-rat unit of Stormfiends with a weapon load-out that punishes at 24″, ruins days at 12″, and ruins lives within 3″. Combining their damage output with the additional wounds of Warpstone-laced Armor allows them to absorb the mortal wounds they will ultimately take when one of the two nearby Warlocks casts More-more-more Warp Power! Stormfiends absolutely love the ability to land those 9 Windlauncher shots at 3+/2+/-3/D3, 9D6 Ratling Cannons at 2+/2+/-1/1, and 12 Shock Gauntlets at 2+/2+/-1/2.

We also get to see two endless spells that will be standards for the new battletome. The bonuses to mobility brought into play by Lauchon and the Soulscream Bridge makes scoring first and second turn battle tactics easier, since it allows those foot heroes (who might normally have a hard time moving more than 9″ in a turn) to jump across the board to claim objectives. Thanquol’s casting bonus allows him to be a very expensive, but reliable taxi driver, with the ability to cast Skitterleap and one of the two endless spells in the same turn, throwing both of the Galletian champions wherever the they need to be.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Disciples of Tzeentch, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hammers of Sigmar, Hosts Arcanum, Nighthaunt, Order, Seraphon, Stormcast Eternals, The Scarlet Doom, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for 2D6 Oslohammer #2

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the 2D6 Oslohammer tournament that took place in Norway on 27th and 28th December. It involved 20 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Hammers of Sigmar (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Battlemage (100)*
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Allies
Knight-Incantor (125)*
– Spell: Celestial Blades
Lord-Relictor (145)*
– General
– Command Trait: High Priest
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Spell: Thundershock
– Prayer: Translocation

Battleline
5 x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
5 x Liberators (115)*
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
4 x Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)*
– Reinforced x 1

Units
10 x Protectors (450)*
– 4x Starsoul Maces
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (480)*
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Additional Enhancements
Holy Command: Call for Aid

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 100 / 400
Wounds: 102
Drops: 1

Brett: Classic 3rd edition Stormcast army made up of 1st and 2nd edition units. Absolutely nothing here with the Thunderstrike Keyword. Geir has chosen Scions of the Storm here mostly for the Vanguard Raptors I think, it’s standard for SCE armies to keep them safe from their opponents shooting. The Battlemage and Lord Relictor can team up and grant teleport (Translocation) and a 7″ charge (Wildform grants +2 to move, run and charge). They can do that from outside of deny range, that can drop either the Fulminators or the Protectors close to your ranged units unless you have very good screens. Both can eat an Unleash Hell through either wounds (4 x Fulminators is 24 wounds at 3+, Protectors are 30 wounds at 2+) or saves.

Ideally the Knight Incantor gives the Fulminators +1 to wound rolls (Celestial Blades) before they are teleported to within 7″. They still have a shooting attack and then do 3 damage on the charge. Defensively the Lord Relictor has Thundershock to subtract 1 from the opponents wound rolls and the Liberators as screens and objective holders. The Holy Command, Call for Aid returns a Redeemer unit (the Liberators) outside of 9″ of enemy models and within 12″ of a Hero unit.

So long as those criteria are met you can place them anywhere on the board. Situationally, it’s great for moving a screen, protecting a hero or grabbing an objective. At at the worst it gives you back 10 wounds of Galletian Veterans. Looking at the opponents they really don’t have the answers. Only one of the Ogor lists included multiple Ironblasters and Leadbelchers but both units are badly outranged by the Vanguard Raptors. Fulminators would average 20 wounds on the charge into the Bladegheist and there are no screens in that army to prevent it. Combinde with the shooting it’s likely that they are gone in one turn. And for anything more durable, the Protectors and Raptors can all do mortal wounds in abundance. Without something like the teleport/fight on death of DoK or mortal wound shooting this is a hard list to counter directly. It has elements that want to hold back and pound you and others that are trying to get at you. Importantly, through Scions and Translocation, they have mobility on top of durability.

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Army Faction: Seraphon
– Army Type: Coalesced
– Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Engine of the Gods (285)**
– General
– Command Traits: Prime Warbeast
– Artefacts: Incandescent Rectrices
– Mount Traits: Beastmaster
– Prayers: Curse
1 x Skink Priest (120)***
– Prayers: Heal
1 x Slann Starmaster (285)***
– Artefacts: Fusil of Conflagration
– Spells: Stellar Tempest
1 x Celestant-Prime (325)***

BATTLELINE
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitter
– Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitter
– Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
5 x Saurus Guard (115)***

BEHEMOTH
1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)**
1 x Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)**
1 x Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)**

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Horrorghast (40)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Expert Conquerors
**Linebreaker
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: (1985/2000)

Danny: Seraphon are in an interesting place at the moment – in the last year they’ve received new rules (Tome Celestial) and two rounds of point hikes (with more coming in the new GHB) – and yet they still occupy a strange space of having some busted 2e style rules in both good and bad ways, awful internal balanced and absolutely the ability to take down tournaments.

Here, Tom takes a relatively common spin on things – a core of the Engine of the Gods which just offers insane utility for its price, along with the ‘buff core’ of a Slann and Priest – supplemented by the lizards’ favourite ally, C-Prime. Seraphon in general have a good mixed phase output but lack something that can really hit hard and fast in melee – hence the big shiny boi’s inclusion.

Thunder Lizard battleline units are, as usual, built around the minimum taxation, which we see here with 2x 10 skinks and the Saurus guard to help keep the Slann alive.

And then we have the bastiladons. Double Bastis have fallen out of favour recently due to their lack of objective play but Tom opts for 3, 1 of which is the bargain-basement CHONK loadout – basically it’s a tonne of wounds on a 1+ save with -1 damage for 165 pts.

Now, you look at the the path to 2nd – double Disciples? One of the only armies able to out-magic a Slann? Top of the win-rate pile? And then you remember Bastiladons do +1 damage to chaos daemons. Losing to Ogors makes sense, as the shooting output in Underguts is easily enough to just blast through any lizard capable of holding an objective.

Without spoiling anything, let’s just also say this list gets WREKT by the incoming points changes. I don’t know where Seraphon go from there that isn’t a ditch until their new book to be honest, but for now, gratz to Tom for a podium finish¬!

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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch
– Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Ogroid Thaumaturge (175)*
– General
– Command Trait: Arcane Sacrifice
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Magister (120)
– Lore of Fate: Shield of Fate
– Bonded to Krondspine
Kairos Fateweaver (435)*
Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)*
– Lore of Change: Fold Reality

Battleline
6 x Screamers of Tzeentch (200)*
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Screamers of Tzeentch (100)*
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)*
– 7x Cursed Blade & Arcanite Shield
– 3x Cursed Glaives

Behemoths
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (50)
Daemonic Simulacrum (60)
Umbral Spellportal (80)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 70
Drops: 2

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Kieron: New book; same old Krondspine holding the line for Disciples of Tzeentch. Despite the points increase, Krondspines are still useful for Tzeentch as a combat anvil that can hold units in place long enough for the mortal wound hammer says hello (and goodbye shortly after!). Arcane Suggestion from the Ogroid can also make the Krondspine’s attacks more potent by reducing the armour of what it is currently trying to eat OR make what it is trying to eat less effective in combat by subtracting one from hit and wound rolls. Coupled with Mystic Shield and All Out Defense, that monster is probably hanging around for an annoying period of time. Another sneaky tricky the Tzeentch player can pull is to have the Magister, to whom the Krondspine is bonded, kill themselves by first casting a spell and then casting a second that is a double, guaranteed by the Destiny Dice. Instead of turning the Magister into a spawn, the Tzeentch player can choose to slay the Magister, turning the Krondspine wild for run and charge and +1 to hit. On top of that, if the Magister cast an Endless Spell, Burning Sigil, for example, the Krondspine can then eat that spell to go up a level. Please note, however, this cannot be done with the spell automatically cast at the start of the game with Arcane Armies until battle round 2 at the earliest.

In terms of the rest of the list, Screamers are very fast and can be brought back to full strength with the Fold Reality spell that both Kairos and the Fluxmaster can cast, but not as effective as they could potentially be in a unit of 9…but that would ruin the list composition as there would not be three battleline units. The 9 could have been handy for the only battleplan Danny failed to win – Lurkers Below – to be able to speed on to that third objective for the auto-win. As it happened, the second place army of Tom Kenneth Solli managed the auto-win instead (hence the 20-0 loss), the Celestant-Prime potentially being a great bit of tech to hold back in Azyr until that key turn to swoop in and snatch the opponent’s home objective and meet the auto-win conditions.

Otherwise, Danny cleaned up very effectively, with the next closest result being a 7 to 8 point victory over Nurgle and then 15+ margins of victory in every other battle. The ability to generate 2 spawn a turn (through Burning Sigil and the Magister’s warscroll spell) would have probably been key shutting down the Kruleboyz Boltboyz in Round 5 but the most impressive result has to be against the 7 dragons of Stian Engebretsen with their 4+ ignore magic ability on their warscroll, meaning that Danny had to beat them in other ways and not just magic (or was aided by some unlucky dice rolls from Stian!) It would be interesting to see what would have been the outcome were Lurkers Below not included in the pack as a 5-0 could have been on the cards. With this battleplan being one of the 6 carried forward into next season’s General’s Handbook, it’ll be interesting to see if it continues to be a bit of a wild card battleplan.

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
– Procession: Scarlet Doom
– Grand Strategy: Fright or Flight
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Awlrach the Drowner (175)*
Guardian of Souls (150)***
– Artefact: Midnight Tome
– Lore of the Underworlds: Shademist
Krulghast Cruciator (150)***
Spirit Torment (115)***
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of the Underworlds: Seal of Shyish

Battleline
5 x Hexwraiths (160)*
30 x Bladegheist Revenants (525)**
– Reinforced x 2
3 x Spirit Hosts (125)***

Units
3 x Fell Bats (75)*
3 x Fell Bats (75)*
10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)**
10 x Dreadscythe Harridans (160)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Purple Sun of Shyish (90)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters
***Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 110
Drops: 8

Declan: Despite an increase in points and a reduction in power Eirik is still rocking the purple sun in this Nighthaunt army and it’s great to see it still getting use. The main benefit here is not the mortal wounds on a 1 (but that’s fun), it’s the -1 rend to all units within range… an effect that doesn’t change ethereal saves of the Nighthaunt. So all the benefit, none of the disadvantages – it’s a great piece of tech!

From Games Workshop / Wahapedia

And that’s before the Nighthaunt start charging to really rack up those negatives to armour saves (or increases to rend if you prefer)

Games Workshop via Wahapedia

Those 8-9 really hurt, but when you consider you can drop a level, it’s really 8+ (almost 42% before re-rolls). I’ve given my opinion on this before, but there doesn’t seem to be a FAQ and Nighthaunt players have definitely paid with their time in the wilderness (what is it with the non-Stormcast box armies? – Bloodbound, Nighthaunt, Kruleboyz!)

The army itself is all about the Bladegheists – if you can kill them in one turn (or in a double) then you’ve likely won… but wow what a unit to have to kill. And if it charges you, with any small units and characters also charging expect to have no armour. And how do you beat a Nighthaunt army… shooting! None-the-less great work from Eiric on a 4-1. I think Nighthaunt are much closer to a 3-2 army so he’s done well to get 4th here.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Disciples of Tzeentch, Fantasy, Flesh-Eater Courts, Games Workshop, Hosts Arcanum, Knights of the Empty Throne, Morgaunt, Order, Seraphon, Slaves to Darkness, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Leicester City AoS GT that took place in the UK on 3rd and 4th December. It involved 28 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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.

Pre-Tournament Analysis

I thought I’d add a bit about the meta at the event before we jump into the meat of the article. If this is popular I’ll continue doing this on future top three articles.

Ranked Players

Below shows the players already ranked in our Woehammer rankings form events before the Leicester GT.

Of the 28 players, 21 Players had already taken part in at least 1 GT before this event, with the highest ranked player (Phil Marshall) being 1st in the UK and currently 2nd in the World. Remember these rankings are based on our own handicapped rankings system explained here.

Faction Breakdown

The Leicester GT had a fairly close representation of the current meta with a few notable exceptions. No Sylvaneth armies where present despite this currently being the 2nd favourite faction with players. Like wise there was also no representation of Ogor Mawtribes or Kharadron Overlords at this event.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)*
– General
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Command Trait: Inescapable Doom
– Artefact: Grasping Plate
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)**
– Daemonforged Blade and Warpsteel Shield
– Artefact: Corrupted Nullstone
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)**
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Spell: Mask of Darkness

Battleline
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
8 x Iron Golems (75)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch

Units
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)*

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (215)*
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
– Prayer1: Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 124
Drops: 4

Phil Marshall: Knights of the Empty Throne – How does it work? In Knights of the Empty Throne, you are able to take Varanguard as Heroes, the first unit which is your general has Inescapable Doom and Grasping plate, meaning it can pile 6 inches and you cant retreat from this unit, the other unit has Corrupted Nullstone which is an auto unbind.

The list is designed around two units of six Varanguard with the Mark of Tzeentch which allows the re-rolls of 1s to armour saves and gives units a 5+ spell ignore. Then you’ll look to really capitalise on these mechanics with other buff pieces in the army, which include two Sorcerer lords. Sorcerer lords have a built in mechanic called Orcular Visions which gives a unit +1 to save (this ability can stack), they are also wizards so offer the ability to cast mystic shield, demonic power (re-roll all hits and wounds) and mask of darkness (teleport).

The final buff piece is the Warshrine, the prayer for Tzeentch is +1 save and a 4+ spell ignore, the only other prayer that may be used is Undivided which allows a unit to re-roll all hits and wounds. On top of this the Warshrine has an aura of 6+ ward which degrades as it takes damage. With all of these buff pieces it allows you to essentially make an unkillable unit (or two) of Varanguard. You can get +6 to your save re-rolling 1s once per game (oracular visions twice, mystic shield, Tzeentch Prayer, all out defence and finest hour), on top of this you can have a 4+ 5+ 5+ spell ignore as the Varanguard have a warscroll ability for spell ignore, mark of tzeentch grants spell ignore and then an additional spell ignore from the warshrine.

As a result there are very few things that can deal with these units once they have the buffs on, you need to be able to do mass mortal wounds in the shooting and combat phase, otherwise there is a strong likelihood that you will never do any damage to this unit. I tend to evaluate the main threats of my opponents army and see how they have deployed, if I can capatalise on getting my general into the bulk of it and keeping them locked in combat for as long as possible. The rest of the list is designed to be very hard to kill with four units of iron golems who get +1 to their save if they havent made a normal move, meaning before rend they will be a 3+ re-rolling 1s.

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Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch – Change Coven: Hosts Arcanum
– Grand Strategy: Master of Destiny
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Curseling, Eye of Tzeentch (180)*
– General
– Command Trait: Cult Demagogue
– Lore of Fate: Arcane Suggestion
Kairos Fateweaver (435)
Lord of Change (400)*
– Artefact: The Eternal Shroud
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Fluxmaster, Herald of Tzeentch on Disc (170)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist

Battleline
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)**
10 x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (250)**
10 x Kairic Acolytes (120)**

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (40)
Umbral Spellportal (80)
Burning Sigil of Tzeentch (50)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Expert Conquerors

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 69
Drops: 7

Kieron: Ryan is the captain of Team Malta and a combination of one of the finest Tzeentch players in the world and one of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet. Speaking to him at the event about his list writing and tactics, he explained that he’s very confident in his approach and then plays the list repeatedly – around 350 reps with the current iteration, losing very few games along the way. The only downside – headaches after each match due to the mental load of channelling the will of The Changer of Ways. Malta has a relatively small AoS scene and there’s only so many times a person can take a beat down from Ryan, no matter how charming he while doing so, and games on TTS don’t really allow for the precision of measurements that cause aforementioned headaches. 

Onto the list itself and it has somewhat of a retro charm about it with two big birds: a combo that, while clearly effective in the right hands, is seen less frequently due to Kairos and the Lord of Change sharing the same warscroll spell now instead of Kairos having his own spell. The Lord of Change offers a good amount of shooting with the Rod of Sorcery and can do some work with a damage 3 Staff of Tzeentch thanks to the Flaming Weapon buff. Together, they give everything within range +1 to cast each, meaning that Ryan can afford to leave Cogs at home in favour of Horrorghast. 

The list can also expect to generate over the magic number of 10 fate points a turn, meaning that 10 blue horrors should be summoned every turn. When talking to Ryan about Screamers, I explained I was excited about how fast they could go and his response was that a Fluxmaster moving 22” and then summoning 9” away is even faster! 

The final little wrinkle for this list (valid for the next month or so at least) is the fact that all Ryan’s battleline are Expert Conquerors – annoying enough for the 10 Kairics to count as 30, but absolutely infuriating on the Pink Horrors that start off counting as 30, but peak at counting as 60 until the 31st wound is done to the unit, at which point it starts the slow decline back to counting as 3 and then counting as dead! 

It clearly worked, with Ryan achieving the maximum possible differential on Day One, with the only loss being into the event’s eventual winner, Phil Marshall, and a tonne of 2+ re-rerolling 1s saving throws and an equally hefty amount of spell ignores and wards. 

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Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADERS
The Triceracop (285)
Engine of the Gods
– General
– Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
– Artefact: Incandescent Rectrices
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Lord Kroak (450)***
Bert the Banner Waver (155)***
Saurus Astrolith Bearer
An Undercosted Priest (120)***
Skink Priest
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Skink Starseer (145)**
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
– Spell: Hand of Glory

UNITS
Skinkrunner Chariot (85)**
1 x Scourgerunner Chariots
Saurustrike Chariot (165)**
1 x Stormstrike Chariot
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
Kroak’s Ablative Wounds (115)*
5 x Saurus Guard
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers

BEHEMOTHS
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Chronomantic Cogs (70)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Expert Conquerors
**Vanguard
***Command Entourage – Magnificent

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS
Artefact

TOTAL: 1990/2000
WOUNDS: 103
ALLIES: 0/400
REINFORCED UNITS: 0/4
DROPS: 11

Kieron: And so on to the third placed army, piloted by the very dry Toby Resnick, including the named units “An Undercosted Priest”, “Kroak’s Ablative Wounds” and the “Raveshaper Engine”, which is like a “Realmshaper Engine” but with flashy LEDs that are operated by remote control depending on who wins priority. I almost felt sorry for the Seraphon player on the table next to us at Leicester as they jealously eyed up the craziest terrain piece you’ll ever see! 

The list itself has a couple of lovely converted chariots that are really good at zipping around the board early game while one of the Engine of the Gods or the Bastiladon is double activating with one of the 5+ CP Toby generally has to play with each turn. Cogs consolidates Kroak’s absolute magical supremacy with a double miscast pretty much being the only way that Kroak fails a spell and, usually, the unbind required when a spell does go off is double figures or flat out impossible. “Big Frog Goes Ribbit Ribbit” indeed. 

All the other buffs that Seraphon players can dish out are also present here, with re-rolling 1s, run and shoot, +1 to hit in addition to the normal All out Attack etc. buffs that can be added. Skinks running about the place, doing all the dirty jobs that score the points while the bigger immediate threats (particularly the resurrecting Engine of the Gods – 50% of the time, it comes back with full wounds every time) draw the enemy’s attention away.  

I’m sure once Ryan had finished with the paracetamol, Toby was ready for some with the number of rules he has to keep in his head, even with more tokens than models to help him keep track. While one of the Order Battletomes from the latest Roadmap is probably another Lumineth book (maybe two!), it would be great to have a Seraphon book to combine some of these into the Warscrolls themselves and make it so players like Toby can fly their Dino Flag and not feel a bit guilty about it. 

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Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Morgaunt
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– Artefact: The Dermal Robe
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Archregent (245)**
– Lore of Madness: Deranged Transformation
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Zombie Dragon (430)*
– General
– Command Trait: Savage Chivalry
– Artefact: Decrepit Coronet
– Mount Trait: Razor-clawed
– Lore of Madness: Miasmal Shroud
Varghulf Courtier (160)**

Battleline
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Crypt Ghouls (170)*
– Reinforced x 1

Units
6 x Crypt Flayers (360)*
– Reinforced x 1

Endless Spells & Invocations
Chalice of Ushoran (50)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 120
Drops: 4

Brett: Flesh eater courts is still centred around their heros and lean on their summoning and buffs to make their other units dangerous. They reward a patient player who is happy to screen the heroes and summon more models early game before striking out. 3 Abhorrants (one mounted and 2 foot) and the Varghulf at the heart of the list and maybe a little unusually 3 x 20 Crypt Ghouls. Bounty Hunters can tear through these quickly and a lot of lists have minimised them. 3 Wizards granting fly to 1 to 3 units (Spectral Host) however if they can fly (like the dragon) then granting run and charge, additional movement (Deranged Transformation) and lastly a small MW spell with the chance of affecting opposing hit and wound rolls (Miasmal Shroud).

Spectral Host on the Zombie Dragon gives up to 20″ of movement + a charge at the top of first turn if they go first. Try not to leave room for it to land near something important early game. Then there is the summoning, a Serf unit is Crypt Ghouls, Knight is 3 Crypt Flayers/Horrors and a Courtier is a Varghulf Courtier. Each Archreagent can summon 20 Serfs or 3 Knights or a Courtier every turn. The Ghoul King can only summon Courtiers. This is a command ability so forcing them to use CP can help but it is done at the end of the movement phase. The Courtiers are both mobile threat and healers rolling 6 dice and healing Serfs on a 2+ and Knights on a 5+ within 10″ (as well as themselves if they kill a model).

As a Morguant host the Serfs can return once destroyed at full strength (4+). It’s a 50% chance that you can kill a screen and achieve very little. All of this is just to build the scene, the army can afford to wait but with the ability to snipe something with either the Flayers or the Zombie Dragon. If they get their buffs off it’s possible for most of the army to reroll 1s to hit if they are close to the Serfs. And those serfs, while they don’t hit hard, can easily get to 3 attacks each making them a reasonable threat to anything with a 4+ save. They’re cheap and trade really well. Castling though means they can struggle to score well in early rounds if you don’t feed them units and tactics. Shooting obviously is a weakness as are ranged Mortal Wounds from spells (they have a lot of denies though). Stretching them out and making them react to you is a good tactic as well.

Simon lost to a Soulblight army with a lot of mobility (Blood Knights, Dire Wolves) and Grave Guard. They were able to hold Simon scoreless. The other loss was to a Seraphon Thunder Lizard with Kroak. Kroak can deny pretty much all of their magic while the Solar Engine Bastiladon tears big holes. Seraphon are a hard counter to the army and very difficult to deal with.

Final Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Drowned Men, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kastelai Dynasty, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Seraphon, Soulblight Gravelords, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments, Underguts

Top Three AoS Lists for the Borderlands Bash

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This is the Top Three AoS lists for Borderlands 2k Bash that took place at Borderlands Comics and Games in Greenville, SC on November 19th. There were a total of 12 players competing in this three-round event.

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: Ogor Mawtribes
– Army Subfaction: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
Frostlord on Stonehorn (445)*
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
Butcher (135)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Cleaver
– Spells: Molten Entrails
Slaughtermaster (135)*
– Artefacts of Power: Gruesome Trophy Rack
– Spells: Blubbergrub Stench

BATTLELINE
Ogor Gluttons (265)*
– Tribal Banner Bearer with Lookout Gnoblar
– Bellower
– Crusher
– Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades
Leadbelchers (170)*
Leadbelchers (170)*

Artillery
Ironblaster (170)*
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)
Ironblaster (170)

Terrain
Great Mawpot (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Patrick: When the Ogor Mawtribes Battletome was released it was a fair assumption that some unit spamming/abuse would come out of the new book. Tobias made this assumption as well and decided to test the waters by dropping as many Ironblasters as he could on the table. “Ironblasters are awesome,” Tobias told me. “I’m not playing Ogors because I want to play greenish stunted gitz… So none of that in my list.” He is also taking advantage of the -1 to wound from Rockmane Elder, providing some extra beef on the Stonehorn.

His Ironblasters played well into all of his matchups, although with some minor difficulty into Idoneth Deepkin due to shooting restrictions that the army carries with it. His Ironblasters killed Bloab Rotspawn in the first round of his second match. Two units firing the long range shot were able to remove him from across the table, and went on to table his Nurgle opponent by the bottom of round 2. “They will be a meta pick. If I had a big event I’d run them, but they weren’t great fun.” It may be too early to say if the warscroll needs some adjustments, but I think at the very least we will see a points increase in the future.

Congratulations to Tobias on his win, and we hope to see more lists from him in the future (the upcoming Cherokee GT, perhaps?).

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
– Army Type: Kastelai Dynasty
– Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
Manfred Von Carstein (380)
– Spells: Fading Vigour
Vengorian Lord (280)
– General
– Command Traits: Swift and Deadly
– Artefact: Fragment of the Keep
– Spells: Invigorating Aura, Amethystine Pinions
Belladamma Volga (200)
– Spells: Vile Transference

BATTLELINE
10 x Blood Knights (390)*
– Kastellan
– Standard Bearer
10 x Blood Knights (390)*
– Kastellan
– Standard Bearer
5 x Blood Knights (195)*
– Kastellan
– Standard Bearer
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**
– Skeleton Champion
– Standard Bearer
– Champion’s Mace or Halberd
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (80)**
– Skeleton Champion
– Standard Bearer
– Champion’s Mace or Halberd

CORE BATTALIONS
* Bounty Hunters
** Expert Conquerors

TOTAL POINTS: (1995 / 2000)

Patrick: “After narrowing down to Soulblight, I went back and forth between a horde of Zombies and Skeletons and a mixed armes list like we have ssen across the meta. However, I thought ‘I own 25 Blood Knights,’ why not run all of them.” And run them, he did, to great effect. The list sees Manfred and a Vengorian Lord bringing buffs and spellcasting to round out his list, as well as some Expert Conqueror Skeletons for objective maintenance. Manfred’s base size came in especially handy due to his unique command ability, providing +1 to hit and wound wholly within 12”. His base size and careful positioning meant that Stuart could have at least 2 units of 10 knights with 2+/2+, -1 rend, and 2-3 damage lances.

Belladomma works to provide a quality fighter to deal with chaff units. Her ability to turn salin models into Dire Wolves worked in Stuart’s favor to keep the board saturated with threats, and can be used to bait an opponent’s dispel attempt to make room for casting from Mannfred and the Vengorian Lord.

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

LEADER
Bloab Rotspawned (320)
– Spells: Gift of Disease
Orghotts Daemonspew (320)
Lord of Afflications (230)
– General
– Command Traits: Overpowering Stench
– Incubatch
– Dolorous Tocsin
– Artefacts of Power: The Splithorn Helm

BATTLELINE
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– Dolorous Tocsin
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
– Dolorous Tocsin
10 x Plaguebearers (150)**
10 x Plaguebearers (150)**

ENDLESS SPELL
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws (60)

TERRAIN
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
* Bounty Hunters
** Expert Conquerors

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Patrick: Jake’s Nurgle list was tooled to the event. “With Prize of Gallet on the list it was going to be incredibly hard to score if I went first.” This meant that he had to break away from his original list (which included no Galletian Veterans) and build in two units of Plaguebearers. They are cheaper than Blightkings, and in this instance would perform the same duty. That left three units of flies, one to deep strike with the Lord of Affliction and one to Drowned Men across the table and lock his opponent down.

Jake feels that some better deployment of Bloab could have kept him alive longer. Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws would have done a lot of work into Tobias’s chaff units, and he may have been able to get a better performance in the third round. “Mawtribes are gross now,” he told me, but he is happy with the list and his performance. “The list did what I expected it too. Flies and Jaws eat the grunts and you aim the Maggoth lords at their heroes.”

He made some final notes in our conversation as well. “Nurgle is fine, the thing that bothers me the most is the lists that are winning are the same archetype. I’d love to see a non-Drowned Men win rate. The issue is everything in that book just pushed it towards that load out. Better units, better artefacts into the best subfaction.” His next event will see the use of a Great Unclean One in more close-range battleplans, one of which will include a “no deep strike” rule.

Army Type: Seraphon
– Army Type: Coalesced
– Army Subfaction: Thunder Lizard
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
Skink Starpriest (130)**
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Fusil of Conflagration
– Spells: Levitate

BATTLELINE
Skinks (75)*
– Skink Alpha
– Boltspitter, Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
Skinks (75)*
– Skink Alpha
– Boltspitter, Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
Skinks (75)*
– Skink Alpha
– Boltspitter, Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler

BEHEMOTH
Dread Saurian (545)**
Dread Saurian (545)**
Dread Saurian (545)**

CORE BATTALIONS
* Expert Conquerors
** Linebreaker

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Patrick: This list is the perfect example of why I love one-day events. The fact that large prizes generally aren’t on the line means that people will be more willing to accommodate casual crowds and test off-meta lists. Jon’s list fits this perfectly.

“The idea…was to make a bad list” Jon told me during a discussion. The Greenville AoS community tends to be newer or more casual players than he normally plays. He didn’t want to create a list that would completely shut other players out. Jon told me “I like the idea of giant lizards stomping around, and this was the only time I would ever actually run them at an event.” Dread Saurians will certainly feel robust in a Thunder Lizard list, but overall they won’t accomplish very much. They’re an ideal unit for new players to feel good dumping wounds into without getting punched back too hard, but players also need to be sure to watch the Skinks, since it would be easy to focus on the big intimidating models while Jon’s battleline consistently scores VP. It’s a lesson in threat assessment and target priority for new players.

While Jon didn’t win the event, he certainly accomplished his goals. Hopefully we see more people approach play with this attitude in event in the future.

Note: Jon did not compete in the final round due to matchups. He was scheduled to face someone he plays multiple times a week, and he decided to give them a chance to play a different opponent (not to mention it is a pain to move three Dread Saurians around).

Tournament Placings

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Cities of Sigmar, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hallowheart, Heartwood, Ogor Mawtribes, Order, Seraphon, Sylvaneth, The Woehammer Crew, thunder Lizard, Top three lists, Tournaments, Underguts

Top Three AoS Lists for the Slambo GT

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This is the Top Three AoS Lists for the Slambo Grand Tournament that took place in Texas, USA on 5th and 6th November. It involved 65 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5 game tournament.

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

Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Thunder Lizard
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Show of Dominance
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Lord Kroak (430)**
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)**
– Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
Skink Priest (90)**
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Engine of the Gods (265)***
– General
– Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Beastmaster
– Spell: Hand of Glory
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse

Battleline
20 x Skinks (150)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (75)*
– Boltspitters Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
5 x Saurus Guard (115)**

Behemoths
Bastiladon with Solar Engine (250)***
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (165)***

Endless Spells & Invocations
Horrorghast (40)
Chronomantic Cogs (40)

Core Battalions
*Expert Conquerors
**Warlord
***Linebreaker

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 120
Drops: 11

Danny:It’s that man Grigar! Can he be stopped? Evidently not. Playing with ‘old’ points, he’s taken the HQ combo. Interestingly (a relative term when writing about Thunder Lizsts) he’s *tripled* down on Thunder Lizardy goodness with one laser Basti and two meat-shield variants. For 165, their tankiness and base size makes them excellent move blockers and objective grabbers – if they push out a few wounds and a road/stomp into the bargain, so much the better. Amusingly, they’ll only get better once Expert Conqs. dies off.

Lots of skinks make up the battleline, for obvious reasons that we’ve often covered.

So what did he beat and how? (Indulge my guesses) KO would have been dealt with by parking bastis on objectives, whose 1+ saves are generally good at coping with massed rend 1 firepower with little in the way of MWs. DoK I imagine would have straight up melted to Solar Engine firepower, Kroak’s MW output and Horrorghast – that’s a lot of attrition for their fragile frames to deal with even with a 4+ rally.
Fyreslayers may have presented a challenge with their ward saves, possible spell ignores and bodies-on-objectives plan – but skinks in Expert Conqs combined with a well-screened Kroak – and ‘Slayer’s lack of ranged threat – clearly put paid to their angry waddling. Hedonites, bless ’em – if they brought any daemons, the Solar Engine would have been damage three against their heaviest hitters. Lumineth would have depended on the list, but if anything can stand up to their magic it’s Kroak, and without their magic-synergy, the old-book often folds.

GG to GG once again. Now do us a favour and go 5-0 with like, an all-Terradon list!

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Army Faction: Sylvaneth
– Subfaction: Heartwood
– Season: The Burgeoning
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumph: Indomitable

LEADERS
Drycha Hamadreth (335)*
– Spells: Regrowth, Verdant Blessing
Arch-Revenant (120)*
– General
– Command Traits: Warsinger
– Artefacts of Power: Seed of Rebirth

BATTLELINE
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (230)*
Tree-Revenants (110)*
Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (500)**

OTHER
Gossamid Archers (220)*
Revenant Seekers (235)**
– Seeker Banner Bearer
– Seeker Hornblower

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

Ethan: Howdy, Ethan here for the Sylvaneth bit and wow is this Matt Robisch list a departure from the regular Sylvaneth structure we’ve seen in the 4-1+ crowd thus far. Heartwood is a relatively standard pick but the Season selection of the Burgeoning is the beginning of a picture showing a more durable, less mobile and less spell dependent Sylvaneth army. This is a list that requires enormous skill to play as it is elite, relatively fragile despite the defensive season and lacks many of the tools such as the Spiteswarm hive and a battlemage which allow for the single-unit Strike and Fade strategy regularly seen which plays like a scalpel, removing a unit a turn as magic support pushes for board control.

Warsinger and the Seed of Rebirth ensure that the Archrevenant has defensive tools to help it survive incidental MWs and shooting while Warsinger makes the large blocks of Kurnoth hunters sufficiently mobile at the same time as sending the gossamids and revenant seekers into overdrive. 6 bows create a sufficient shooting threat to force opponents to approach the sylvaneth force while Gossamid archers support this to threaten 5-wound heroes and to add tech to slow the advance of a variety of shooting lite armies. Looking at Matt’s MUs, he has admittedly had a relatively lucky run, coming up against 5 armies with little to no shooting with which to remove his gossamid archers. This allows for a greater deal of board control than you would expect into armies with the tools to remove them outside of their unleash and retreat charge phase mechanic.

Outside of this, the list is very much what you see on the tin, Drycha is an excellent damage threat in midrange with her shooting profile further disincentivising charges as 30 shots doing MWs on 6s is nothing to sniff at (average of 5 MWs for the mathematician savants in the audience). The Kurnoth hunters with scythes are supported by the Revenant seekers, bringing 1 back a turn and serving as an anvil with 30 wounds on a 3+ base, supplemented by a 6+ ward (and often a mystic shield, I’d hope). This list holds space well compared to most Sylvaneth lists and functions in the absence of spellcasters, demonstrating a different aspect of the Sylvaneth than we’ve seen thus far and perhaps heralding somewhat the direction many will take their Sylvaneth lists as the book starts to mature and players become more willing to experiment.

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Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
– Army Type: Hallowheart
– Grand Strategy: Mighty Beachhead
-‘ Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Spells: Warding Brand, Ignite Weapons
1 x Bundo Whalebiter (490)***
1 x Lord-Castellant (155)***
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Warding Brand Ignite Weapon
1 x Battlemage (100)***
– Artefacts: Whitefire Tome
– Ghur
– Spells: Sear Wounds, Elemental Cyclone, Warding Brand, Crystal Aegis, Ignite Weapons, Roaming Wildfire

BATTLELINE
10 x Flagellants (80)*
Prophet
10 x Flagellants (80)**
Prophet
10 x Flagellants (80)**
Prophet

ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Aethervoid Pendulum (40)

OTHER
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Stormdrake-Prime
– Drakerider’s Warblade

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Peter: I reached out to Tom who kindly agreed to give us a quick run down on the way his list works.

Tom Guan: The list does a lot of mortal wounds and good target selection between the dragon and hurricanum shooting, all the casting, and impact hit from the gargant. Let’s it deal with armor fairly well, with conquerer on the flagellants, it can steal objectives pretty well also. I felt like the list had a lot of different play available to it against everything and would play something similar in the future.

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Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes
– Army Subfaction: Underguts
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Butcher (135)**
– Cleaver
– Artefacts: Gnoblar Blast Keg
– Spells: Blubbergrub Stench
1 x Hrothgorn (170)**
1 x Tyrant (150)**
– General
– Command Traits: Mass of Scars
– Big Name: Fateseeker
– Artefacts: Gruesome Trophy Rack
1 x Blackpowder’s Buccaneers (105)***

BATTLELINE
8 x Leadbelchers (360)*
4 x Leadbelchers (180)*
4 x Leadbelchers (180)*

ARTILLERY
1 x Ironblaster (130)
1 x Ironblaster (130)***
1 x Ironblaster (130)***
1 x Ironblaster (130)***

TERRAIN
1 x Great Mawpot (0)

OTHER
20 x Gnoblars (100)
20 x Gnoblars (100)
3 x Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers (170)

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bounty Hunters
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Grand Battery

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Declan: When Peter asked me to comment on an Ogor list for the top 3 series I was happy to oblige… but a little ‘Gut’-ted that they were outside the top 3 – however a 4-1 result is still special with Ogors, so congrats to Bryan on this one.

The US scene has already been a bit strange for Ogors with Ironblasters and Leadbelchers being a lot more common there than on this side of the pond. The approach here is to shoot the world, and then charge and do mortal wounds. However the real tech is in the spell:

Games Workshop via Wahapedia

A low casting value and a bubble make this a great spell when you remember that the Ironblasters have the Rhinox keyword – so they all benefit.

Games Workshop via Wahapedia

And what a benefit. Mortal wounds on a 4+ instead of a 6+ and this is based on the actual charge distance rolled, not what was moved. You also get to shoot with the Ironblasters first. I’ve never known why it hasn’t caught on elsewhere but it is an interesting list that will likely only get better in the new book, where the Ironblaster looks like a beast of a warscroll.

Final Tournament Placings