In what I could only describe as “the metagame ducking under my analysis then delivering a devastating uppercut”, this week’s CI not only doesn’t have an Incarnate in any of the showdowns, it doesn’t have an Incarnate in any of the top 8 finishes for the following three events either. We will see how things pan out over the next few weeks once players have had time to internalise the beatdown the Rupture Incarnate combo had on proceedings last week, but for now let’s enjoy this refreshing dose of *glances down at notes* Null Myriad Immortis.

Old Town Throwdown Summer Smash

90-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lake Forest, CA United States on August 12 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Matt Nguyen – Darkwalkers:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Gavin Grigar – Null Myriad:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Matt is taking advantage of price drops on the Slaangor and the updated coherency rules here with this list as it uses Tzaangor Enlightened on foot as supplemental hammers to the Bullgors. What’s notable about the Enlightened is a) how cheap they are, as 90 points for 9 wounds on a fairly choppy platform is nice, and b) that they shut off command abilities being received to units within 3″ in the combat phase.

This shuts off the use of things like the fights-twice ability on the Immortis Guard, but *not* the use of Counter-strike, the command ability they can use in the enemy charge phase to gain +1 to wound in the following combat phase. Those Immortis Guard (and Katakros) are the nuts to crack in this list, as Gavin has taken the unusual approach of bringing a regiment of renown meaning he has less of the typical OBR luxuries.

I think on paper I favour Matt’s list, due to the amount of high quality attacks he can put out from round two onwards, with two notable caveats – he needs to be able to one turn crush the Immortis Guard when he commits, because if he doesn’t it’s just straight up over. The second caveat is the command trait Gavin has – Diversionary Tactics. By foregoing the typical picks in Dark Acolyte or Aura of Sterility (or Show of Superiority jesus OBR why do you have so many bangers), Gavin instead deducts 3 from charge rolls of enemy units within 12″ of the Mortisan. If Gavin can keep his castle contained within a 12″ bubble of the Mortisan *and* contest objectives early on until Matt is *forced* to drop his Bullgors and other hammers from reserves, then the magic happens. With a net -2 to charges (+1 from deep strike bonus from BoC battle traits), there’s a good chance they fail their charges and sitting there with their dicks in the wind, ready for their low-armour-save-having-asses to get their bones removed.

Result

Null Myriad Victory – 520 – 20

Gavin Grigar – Null Myriad – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Un-movable Immortis

Thoughts

Bit of a surprise for me, but Gavin Grigar is one of the most successful and skilled players in the world, and OBR are still absolutely fantastic in the new season. Gavin has opted to take the Soulblight Regiment of Renown, which is a somewhat cheap pairing of a corpse cart and 20 zombies that keep their 6+ ward and deducts one from ward save rolls for enemy models within 12″ of the Corpse Cart.

20 Zombies aren’t going to set the world on fire in combat, but they do give OBR a pair of units for relatively cheap, with the Zombies giving you a nice long 20 model conga line screen to tuck the important stuff behind, and the corpse cart can give wonderful utility in the mirror and against many of the game’s toughest or most challenging units to kill. A fun wrinkle added to a strong list.

Thomas Guan – Vyrkos Dynasty – 2nd Place

The List

Army list - click to expand

Archetype

Zombies

Thoughts

Speaking of Zombies, Thomas is back with another podium finish with this hateful magnificent army of Zombies and buff pieces to make the Zombies tougher/faster/more effective in combat. Outside of the deadwalkers, Thomas can tie up enemy shooting units with Belladama’s warscroll spell yeeting Wolves at them, throw more Wolves at them in the form of the 10 in the list, and throw even more wolves at them using the unique HA from Vyrkos to bring another unit of 10 onto the board.

Just about the most impressive thing about this list and Thomas however is just finishing rounds on time, as that is a *ton* of models to be replenishing, moving and piling in over the course of five rounds.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Taran Birk – Reapers of Vengeance: Skarbrand, an Unfettered Fury BT and allied Khagra’s Ravagers/Cockatrice in a mostly chaff running Blood Tithe list with some added wrinkles
• 4th – Noe Aquino – Greyfyrd: Noe proving that FS aint dead just because they lost Galletian Vets. A mix of Vulkites, Hearthguard Berzerkers and herohammer units/support heroes, running the Grimhold Exile for added mobility
• 5th – Robbie ‘Bear’ Steinbring – Null Myriad: Fairly standard mix of Katakros/Arkhan/Immortis/Deathriders
• 6th – Alec Jerome – Morgaunt: Crypt horror/ghoul spam with a full complement of six foot heroes for maximum summoning and spellcasting flexibility
• 7th – Tad Baten – King’s Gitz: Trogg build that’s removed most of the buff pieces (exception being a Sloggoth) and instead brings two Webspinner Shamans to throw out Sneaky Distraction, Merciless Blizzard and Maelstrom/Scuttletide endless spells
• 8th – Matt Nguyen – Darkwalkers: See Showdown

Blackout VII

101-player, 5-round Grand Tournament at Firestorm Games, Cardiff, Wales on August 12 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Stats & Ladders.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Every Step is Forward

David Towsey – Null Myriad Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Christoffer Karlsmose – Null Myriad: Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A clash of styles in what would initially seem to be a mirror match but has some subtle but impactful stylistic differences. David has a more ‘typical’ Immortis build that goes heavier with it’s hammers with Stalkers and a unit of Morghast for the crucial shutting off of command abilities (vital for locking down Christoffer’s ability to retreat and charge, bludgeon and other goodies). His command trait is Dark Acolyte to help him power through Empower Nadirite Weapons in the face of Christoffer’s Arkhan, also giving him an easier time of scoring the Magical Dominance battle tactic.

On the flip side, Christoffer has Show of Superiority, which makes approximately 1/3rd (it’s a 5+ roll) of David’s command abilities cost 2 CP rather than 1. This is quite punishing as OBR really lean on their command abilities for their units to sing, and starving said resource is a nice way to gain an edge. Outside of that, Arkhan obviously gives him greater flexibility and extra unit replenishment, and being able to power out Drain Vitality (if a unit is caught outside the NM aura which is surprisingly small) can be very game changing. Lastly, 3 units of Deathriders give his list (along with the super fast Arkhan) a mobility edge once the Morghast are dead.

Result

Null Myriad (Christoffer) Victory – 22-20

Christoffer Karlsmose – Null Myriad – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Katakros & Friends!

Thoughts

Between this archetype being a mainstay in Competitive Innovations for a few months now and already discussing the quirks of it in the showdown there’s not a ton left to say. There’s been some discussion within the OBR community as to whether Arkhan is worth it in OBR lists for a number of reasons:

1. As a big boy, he can’t go into a Sub-commander slot in a battle regiment, locking the army into at minimum a 2 drop list as Katakros is basically essential to the army.
2. His cost (compared to a Mortisan) means you’re taking less hammer units in the list in what is already a low model count elite army.
3. He’s a knock-off Skeletor chump.

Christoffer has embraced the weird little guy along with the Deathriders to help mitigate against one of the common pitfalls these Immortis Guard lists fall into – lack of mobility. That’s not to say that Immortis are slow, as with the movement command they can hustle 8″ and still be able to charge… but this isn’t an army that has more traditional forms of reach from long ranged missile weapons or easy deep strike charges, meaning you can severely mitigate what they’re able to do by hitting da bricks!! and leaving.

Deathriders can trundle into those hard to reach places, charge over low wound screens with their Deathrider Wedge ability and just generally make playing on battleplans with spread objectives a little bit more palatable for the Ossiarch general. You’ll still have your core castle that you want to keep nice and tight, but the Deathriders act as mobile screens/hammers/anvils in an army that really benefits from units capable of fulfilling multiple roles.

Andrew Hughes – Legion of Night – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Nagash & Chaff

Thoughts

Andrew with another top finish (coming 4th the previous CI at Leeds GT) running pretty much the same list as last time (tweaked Grand Strategy). While Nagash has been paired a lot with FEC lately, SBGL also offer a compelling alternative as they allow the army to grind out long games in a less CP intensive way compared to the FEC ghouls method.

Zombies, 60 of them in fact act as a nightmare to remove with their 5+ ward from Nagash. But that’s not all! the unit replenishing itself from Gravesites, Nagash and from killing enemy models, with a 4+ ward in the first battle round thanks to The Bait stacking with Nagash’s aura. Legion of Night means they can charge on the opponent’s turn if an enemy unit finished a charge move within 12″ of them, making them a surprisingly fast unit to get to the center of the board (or you don’t go near them and they auto run 6″ and take control of the board… pick your poison). They take care of holding primary objectives, while the rest of the army list is in pursuit of two goals: Buffing up the zombies to make them more effective, or helping shore up the lists weaknesses. Fell bats act as battleline requirements that are also fast enough to grab spread out objectives the Zombies don’t want to divert their attention away to, and as Summonable units they get recycled just like the Zombies do, getting stronger as the game draws on if they’re able to kill models in combat.

The Vampire Lord has a heroic action to teleport for the absolutely maddening teleport + blizzard combos, this one being particularly brutal as the heroic action can be used on either player’s turn meaning the Vampire Lord can fulton extraction himself out of there once he’s left the opponent’s unit a frozen shattered mess. With Morbheg’s Claw he’s even casting it with a +2 bonus, making it less reliant on Primal Dice to go off.

Banshees act as a cheap spell defence unit I’m surprised we haven’t seen in more Soulblight lists, and Nagash of course demands only the finest in Endless Spells to supplement his damage output and help him extend his dominion over the entire board.

Stephen Follows – Legion of Night – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Charge of the Black Knight Brigade

Thoughts

This was originally in the BOTR section before I realised that not only did Stephen 5-0, but it was an interesting enough list that I feel it warranted enough discussion that his bit of BOTR was ballooning into epic proportions for what is supposed to be a bullet point.

A spicy list I managed to see in action while he was testing the concept – it’s running a ton of Black Knights with Wight Kings on Steeds for what is effectively a Death version of the Ogor monster charge mortals game-plan, but they get to reroll their charges for free while near the Wight King, and they’re delivering those mortals slightly differently. To be specific, you roll 2 dice for each model in the unit, and on a 4+ (provided there is a Wight King nearby), it deals a mortal wound to the chosen enemy unit within 1″ of the unit at the end of the charge. With three units of 10 Black Knights, each is throwing 20 Dice after a successful charge, meaning on average each is capable dumping 10 mortal wounds on the charge… “Fucking what!?” Yeah.

3 of these units can replenish two models in each of Stephen’s hero phases provided there’s a gravesite and a hero nearby, and with The Bait they have a 5+ ward in the first battle round, rerolling ward saves of 1 thanks to their banner. They can charge on your opponent’s turn thanks to being in Legion of Night, and Mannfred can do it himself instead of a redeploy in your movement phase. It’s wild that Manny gets the afterthought mention at the end of the list explanation, but he’s really the cherry on top of what is already an incredibly potent list posing challenging questions that many of the lists in the metagame right now aren’t built to try and answer.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 all went 4-1 or better. They were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 4th – Chris Myhill – Ionrach: Idoneth with another impressive finish, this one running 12 Ishlaen eels and some allied Heartrenders and an Avatar of Khaine.
• 5th – Laurie H-W – Hosts Arcanum: The standard Kairos + acolytes shell is supplemented by unusual allies – 22 Blissbarbs for a meaningful and cheap shooting component, and 6 Ogroid Theridons for an overlooked but brutally powerful hammer.
• 6th – Michael Wilson – Draichi Ganeth: (had to look this one up, has anyone even heard of this temple?) A ‘Norathi’ list that charges screaming into a bold new world of 70 Witch Aelves throwing out Rend 2 attacks without Mindrazor (-3 with) on the charge.
• 7th – Daniel Arnold – Khelt Nar: Ahh there you are Morathi and the Bow Snakes… you weren’t picking up my calls! I was so worried!
• 8th – David Towsey – Null Myriad: See showdown

Bathurst GT 2023 | Age of Sigmar

41-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bathurst, NSW Australia on August 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Thomas Oliver – Maggotkin of Nurgle:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Christian Bugg – Kharadron Overlords:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Like a wound that just won’t scab, Pusgoyles Nurgle is back in Competitive Innovations. Flies are still as good as they’ve ever been with their combination of high mobility, reasonable damage output (in both rend and mortal wound flavours), and disgusting resilience. Thomas has Gutrot and some Rotmire Creed for another wrinkle for Christian to consider, along with Be’lakor to shut down the flagship Frigate (presumably) on a crucial turn.

Christian’s list has embraced the melee potential of the army, as those Skywardens on the charge are capable of putting out 3 attacks each on 2s and 2s (rend 1 damage 2), before retreating at the end of combat if their prey is somehow still alive and stayed within 3″ of them. This ability to retreat is vital in this matchup, as they really don’t want to get bogged down against the Pusgoyles – they are wound inefficient for their cost – 12 wounds for 260 points on only a 4+ save. This makes disease a huge issue for them, creating situations where the army wants to collapse onto one small pocket of Nurgle and wipe it out entirely… which is easier said than done through Disgustingly Resilient. As the Pusgoyles are fast enough to keep up (mostly) with the balloon boys, this dynamic makes it a tough matchup for Christian.

Result

Maggotkin of Nurgle Victory – 24 – 12

Thomas Oliver – Maggotkin of Nurgle – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Fly Spam

Thoughts

Did you know Pusgoyles actually went down in points in the last Battlescroll? Only 10, but it’s a sign of where the game has gone in the time since the books initial release onto an unsuspecting populace. Nurgle as a book has proven time and time again that even in a landscape that is ever-changing (and subject to power creep), they have the tools to keep up thanks to it’s versatile battle traits and warscrolls.

I remember in the last few months I had another hobbyist tell me that they felt that Nurgle had lost something special in a world where ‘ward saves were given out so freely to other factions’. This is somewhat true, as more factions than ever before have some form of access to a 6+ ward, with some even going up to a 5+ or better in conditional circumstances with certain support elements. What this well intentioned but flawed opinion left out however is that Nurgle gets there’s in as unconditional a manner as possible. There’s no hoops to jump through, it just is.

Unlike so many armies in the game, Nurgle has so very little need of support heroes or buff pieces, their units are designed to (largely) operate independently, with many designed with a specific niche that still works as intended almost two years later. That’s pretty impressive.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Terence Voller – Hedonites of Slaanesh: Pretenders Blissbarb Spam (with a capital S, 88 of the fuckers!) with Be’lakor.
• 3rd – Bob Van Emmerik – Legion of Night: A VLOZD, Manny, 2 VL form the Vampiric core, with a double reinforced Skeleton anvil and 20 Grave Guard as a tertiary hammer.
• 4th – Christian Bugg – Barak Zon: See showdown
• 5th – Jake Gunning – Barak Zon: Another melee KO list running 2 frigates and 21 Skywardens. Impressive showing that stumbled only against the 2nd Place Blissbarb spam list that presumably took one look at those Skywardens and blasted them right off the table. Cute list to keep an eye on.
• 6th – Liam Burnett-Blue – Pretenders: More Slaanesh with 44 Blissbarbs and 10 Slickblade Seekers, with Glutos as a extremely tough forward anvil for everything to anchor onto with that -1 to hit bubble doing work.
• 7th – Thomas Strachan – Gnarlroot: A mixed of tree themed greatest hits WITHOUT a Warsong – TLA, Arch-Revenant, Ghur Battlemage, Tree Revs aplenty, 6 Kurnoth Scythes and 6 Revenant Seekers. Yum yum, love that 6 person coherency.
• 8th – Jonathan Burn – Stomper Tribe: In what could (with enough of a chemically altered mind) be described as a ‘horde’ Gargant army, Jonathan has 4 individual Mancrusher Gargants and *THREE* Mega-Gargants (Warstomper, Gatebreaker and Beast-smasher).

Wrap Up

Time’s up, I have to go try and cram even more jank into my Big Waaagh list for next month’s tournament that club members have described as “a call for help”. Have a good week!