Hey folks! I wanted to take the time at the top here to remind those of you who enjoy Age of Sigmar that the Tabletop Battles app now supports Age of Sigmar. What is it? Well the short version is its a fantastic little scorekeeping app that also tracks your long term stats, organise games by events and offers nice filtering tools to get a better sense of how your faction choice/opponent/battle plan affect your win rate. As a bonus, you can even submit match scores tracked in the app straight to BCP! I tried it out last week and I’m hooked, as someone who has loved his laminate sheet I’ve previously used to keep score on.

Now then, three events to cover this week, all offering some interesting insights into how much has changed with the battlescroll. There’s no Seraphon to discuss here or even that little rapscallion Katakros and his immortal legions. There are aelves, but not the ones you would expect…

Boise Cup O AOS GT 2023

46-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Boise, ID US on July 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Matt Beasley – Guild of Summoners:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Thomas Guan – Vyrkos Dynasty:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

This matchup is a fun one because of how it touches on several key aspects of the new battlepack that have caused a revision in how lists are constructed. From the Tzeentch side, the new spell Rupture makes it possible to have an Incarnate go wild without sacrificing the bonded wizard, which is very useful to do considering doing so allows Matt to feed his own endless spells to the Incarnate for levels to keep it alive over the course of the game.

On the other side (and true of both of them really) Thomas has brought along an Andtorian Acolytes battalion. This battalion; more-so than previous attempts at enticing players away from a one drop; allows an army to get an edge in the primal dice arms race as it’s a 3+ each hero phase for an extra primal dice. If your opponent has it and you don’t this will be keenly felt, as suddenly it becomes near impossible to get a key spell off. In this matchup, both have brought it along, which gives the slight edge to the Tzeentch player if only thanks to Kairos/fate dice making it possible to cheat more spell casts through Thomas’ defences.

That said, that suffocating gravetide has its work cut out for it, because while Tzeentch excels at taking out support targets and elite pieces with its myriad of targeted damage spells.. its damage drops off considerably when asked to deal with *checks notes* 160 Zombies. Very troubling indeed for the Incarnate, who could find themselves in a position where they devastate or completely destroy a zombie unit, only to lose a level/die in the process to the Dragged Down and Torn Apart rule for the zombies – still effective even in it’s nerfed state.

Result

Vyrkos Dynasty Victory – 520 – 20

Thomas Guan – Vyrkos Dynasty – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Zombies shambling on circles

Thoughts

Did you know that in Age of Sigmar, control of primary objectives is key to success? Thomas certainly thinks so, as he has built his entire game plan around it. It’s successful precisely because Zombies (with two sources of a 5+ ward between Gorslav and Torgillius) can make even standing on a circle impossible without first wiping out the unit entirely… which is hard to do.

On battleplans with very few objectives and if they’re lacking incredible hammers (that are resilient to Dragged Down and Torn Apart), the opponent may find themselves easily scoring battle tactics but unable to actually score the primary points of hold 1/2/more. Win the battle by making your opponent unable to win.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Cody Quigley – Feast Day (FEC): The delusional yet loveable lads have had a bit of a resurgence with their updated warscrolls granted to them from Harbingers. Cody loves the flexibility of units of 6 Crypt Horrors, and has brought many.
• 3rd – Jarod Brown – Zaitrec (LRL): This is a fun one – the sizeable discounts to the named characters (other than Teclis) and Bladelords have meant Jarod is able to bring 20 Bladelords, Eltharion, Sevireth and the twins, and a bunch of endless spells AND Dawnriders. It’s a fresh new take with no Sentinels or Teclis and I love it.
• 4th – Matt Beasley – Guild of Summoners (DoT): See showdown
• 5th – Jack Geigar – Astral Templars (SCE): Another new style of army, this one bringing 6 Evocators on Dracolines (big beneficiaries of the coherency changes), a couple of Knight-Incantors to have an answer to the mad magic going around, and a mix of other Vanguard units, some Shadow Warriors and even an Assassin.
• 6th – Michael Tunes – Null Myriad (OBR): Katakros, Arkhan, a couple of Mortisans, add big guys for taste and stir vigorously.
• 7th – Benjamin Schimmoller – Vyrkos Dynasty (SBGL): Torgillius, Radukar and Belladama headline an army packed to the gills with summonable units including 40 Grave Guard.
• 8th – Joseph Tsai – The Emerald Host (NH): The EH haven’t been taken much in favour of Scarlet Doom, but suddenly in a world where disrupting your opponents spellcasting foot heroes and Acolytes battalions is important, this subfaction is so much more compelling. Banshees help too!

Southern Fried Sigmar GT

37-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Marietta, Georgia US on July 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Josh Bennett – Pretenders Host:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Jon Anderson – Fuethán:
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Thoughts

Who would win in a fight, Be’lakor with the most potent shooting build that chaos is capable of… or like a dozen sharks that can only be shot at one at a time.

Result

Fuethán Victory – 25 – 23

Jon Anderson – Fuethán – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Sharks

Thoughts

“I just brought this list to have fun and meme.” A quote from Jon posted on twitter by Michelle Anderson. Sharks received a notable points drop in the last battlescroll, and Jon has seized on it with an extremely skewed list that benefits from essentially zigging when everyone else zags. Everyone else is teching their lists to deal with magic either through heightened defences, better spellcasters or large hordes to try and ignore the situation as best as they can.

As a result of this, there are fewer shooting armies than ever before. The amusing paradox of this is that the fewer shooting armies there are, the more potent the shooting armies that remain become. Jon’s list is highly mobile and is capable of getting close enough to ignore the new Look Out Sir and take out support pieces and co-ordinate shooting to focus down key pieces and do just enough to keep the game close on primary points.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Josh Bennett – Pretenders Host: See showdown
• 3rd – Tristan Detweiler – Null Myriad: Katakros and a ton of Stalkers, running only 3 Immortis and no Arkhan.
• 4th – Robert Colt – Reapers of Vengeance: One of the most foul Khorne lists – one with Be’lakor in it. It does somewhat redeem itself with the inclusion of Skarbrand and a Bloodthirster, as well as 6 Skullcrushers for a mix of hammers and anvils… but c’mon Rob, Be’lakor?
• 5th – Dave Jones – Glogg’s Megamob –  Gits players are still exploring how to adapt to the new season when many of their all-star units took heavy points drops. Dave has opted to focus on Troggoths and minimal support pieces, but finds points for two Madcap Shamans to teleport around with Skragrott and take advantage of how powerful it is to have a small base wizard you can teleport to extend the range of Merciless Blizzard.

Loremaster #2 La Classique D’été AoS

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sherbrooke, QC CA on July 29 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Alexis Boucher – Gnarlroot:
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vs.

Yann Le Corff – Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist:
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Thoughts

Another two armies that benefited a lot from points drops in the last balance pass are featured in this showdown – for Sylvaneth we have the lady of vinces and sword hunters featured, and for Yann’s Ogors it’s all about the foot Ogors. As for the matchup itself, I see it coming down to the matchup between those Kurnoth Swords and the myriad of dads on tour charging them. While Ogors are great in terms of weight and dice, they can struggle a tad with high save units (Ironguts obviously help here), so the positioning of the Treelord, the Lady of Vines and those Kurnoth are pivotal in board control and the mission.

Interestingly, I do quite like the Dryads too here as a speedbump – they’re not going to *do* anything against these Ogors, but their -1 to hit and wound in combat when combined with a 5+ ward suddenly makes them an infuriatingly difficult unit to efficiently kill. High charge rolls from the Ogors on the charge likely tip the scale, or a decisive combat phase to lift the Kurnoth will likely cause the game to snowball in favour of the Destruction army.

Result

Gnarlroot Victory – 30 – 15

Alexis Boucher – Gnarlroot – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Tree castle kept peaceful, a smattering of dryads being a ballache in the center board, and the Kurnoth Hunters and Drycha going all Entmarch on Isengard.

Thoughts

I love how wild west the beginning of a season is that we’re seeing these kind of truly oddball lists cropping up. The Warsong Revenant is still here and still a very pivotal piece to the lists success, but with less shooting going around and points drops it’s suddenly possible for a list that leans on the lady of vines, dryads and a treelord for a grindier board control style to find success. I think this list falls over flat to an optimised starborne seraphon list or very fast turn one alpha strikes, but it’s got the tools to play it close against most armies in the game – just how Sylvaneth like it.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Frederic Bigras-Burrogano – Soulblight Gravelords: Legion of Blood aint dead, its simply unliving. Neferata and the VLOZD are still here, but the Blood Knights are gone (as is the Ethereal artefact), instead a renewed focus on summonable units and a grindier playstyle.
• 3rd – Loic Gosselin Delort – Ionrach: Another Idoneth list, this one going 4-1 and bringing eels back into style – 12 of them in total and a Leviadon, with some thralls for screening and Volturnos and a murder king. Another beneficiary of points drops.
• 4th – Yann Le Corff – Meatfist: See showdown
• 5th – Justin Lapointe – Guild of Summoners: An interesting and unique take on the chicken factory – the list runs absolutely no endless spells and instead has brought along Be’lakor and 10 Chaos Chosen! While not at their best in Tzeentch, they’re a versatile and powerful hammer/anvil combo that can help round out the army nicely and anchor the castle or middle of the board long enough for the summoning to get going.

Wrap Up

While I don’t expect every week to be like this (these are three relatively small events after all), it is exciting and refreshing to see a bunch of armies that were previously power crept out of relevance suddenly post 4-1 or better results using units previously left behind. We’ve touched on Dryads, Sharks, the twins from Lumineth, Bladelords, Ogor Gluttons, Evocators in Dracolines, the list goes on. Until next week!