After an Extensive bit of coverage last week we’re back to a smaller set of lists from some more modest sized GTs for this week. One in Scotland, and two in the United States.

Broken Realms and Minis for War 5

57-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Scotland, GB on April 27 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

William Cruickshanks – Blades of Khorne:
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vs.

Rob West – Ossiarch Bonereapers
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Thoughts

Crematorians are an interesting shift from your usual OBR list. Able to explode and deal mortal wounds to opponents when killed, it only really shines with Mortek Guard since generally OBR are too elite to be sacrificing a ton of stuff.

The Khorne list is otherwise pretty bog standard. No Skarbrand, but makes it up with more troops and priests to support them. They also included enough chaff to weather being exploded by the Crematorians and walk away with some benefit. In the end it’s a crushing victory for Khorne.

Result

Blades of Khorne: Skullfiend Tribe Victory – 32 – 17

William Cruickshanks – Blades of Khorne – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Single Bloodthirster plus Khorne good stuff

Thoughts

As stated above, this list eschews Skarbrand in order to fit in more heroes and troops but the basic strategy is the same. The Bloodthirster kitted out with Warlord Trait and Artefact allows it to do some serious damage and fly to where it is most effective. The other powerhouse of the list is the 10 Skullreapers. While seeming unassuming, properly buffed they can proc a lot of Mortal Wounds, which is something some Khorne lists struggle with.

The choice to double up on prayers with a Warlord Battalion gives the priests a lot of flexibility with buffs. Khorne has an insane number of offense and defensive buffs. With enough disposable chaff to gain extra blood tithes the tactical flexibility of this list is extremely high.

Phil McGuinness – Big WAAAGH! – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

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Archetype

BIG PIG BIG PIG BIG PIG

Thoughts

Oh this is fresh. You don’t see BIG PIG much, though 1 or 2 have slowly crept into Ironjawz/Big WAAAGH! lists as pet units. They’re not terrible, especially now that Unstoppable Momentum drops at the end of the battle round instead of each turn.

Strategy wise, this isn’t much different from a small pig list. Charge everything in, let Smashin and Bashin’ do the work and then clean up whats left. The General exists to get stuck in alongside them, while Get’ Em Beat gives one a 3D6 charge, good stuff. The Wardokk is unusual, the cheapest source of Merciless Blizzard in the book just in case you need to do a lot of mortals really fast.

Overall, simple and effective.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Reece Fraser – Sylvaneth (Heartwood): Alarielle with Kurnoth bows and Gossamids.
• 4th – David Jack – Flesh-eater Courts (Hollowmourne): Morbheg knights and Crypt Horrors.
• 5th – Rafal Kolban – Seraphon (Fangs of Sotek): Slann good stuff with Skinks.
• 6th – Rob West – Ossiarch Bonereapers (Crematorians): See Showdown.
• 7th – Nate Watson – Lumineth Realm-lords (Zaitec): Herohammer with Light of Eltharion, Avalenor and Sevireth.
• 8th – Lewis Mitchell – Idoneth Deepkin (Fuethan): Allopex spam.
• 9th – Andy Currie – Daughters of Khaine (Zainthar Kai): Morathi and the Bowsnakes, with Blood Sisters for melee.
• 10th – Tom Skelton – Maggotkin of Nurgle (Befouling Host): Glottkin, 2 Maggoth Lords and a GUO.

Smash & Bash GT 2024

54-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Austin, TX, US on April 27 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Marco Hernandez – Da Choppas:
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vs.

Christopher Schelling – Knights Excelsior (Stormcast Eternals):
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Thoughts

Yeah, Stormcast have this one in the bag. The Stormcast list is only 2 drops, dictating priority and the Orruk list really doesn’t have much protection against mortal wounds, other than their numbers. While the Orruk list can try and shield their heroes and more elite troops with their brutes and Ardboys, once they’re gone it’s going to be tough going to take out all those Annihilators.

Result

Knights Excelsior (Stormcast Eternals) Victory – 21 – 14

Christopher Schelling – Knights Excelsior (Stormcast Eternals) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Vexilor-Annihilator Mortal Wound spam.

Thoughts

Hooo boy, these lists are rough. There’s not a ton of finesse to them, but it’s certainly effective. The Vexilors get to plant their banner once per game to do D3 mortal wounds to everything within 6″ of a point 24″ away. Do that 4 times and that’s an average of 8 mortal wounds off the bat to multiple units.

Then the Annihilators come in. Mortal Wounds when they land, Mortal Wounds when they charge. The Imperitant makes sure one unit gets to drop in with 7, giving at least one unit a more than 50% shot of charging in, but with this many units you’re basically playing a numbers game, can you spike hard enough to decimate the enemy early that they can’t come back from it? The Annhilators are pretty solid in combat once they get in too, so they can usually mop up what’s left.

The list isn’t invincible. It can really go south if you get a ton of bad dice rolls on impact/charge wounds, and it can get stonewalled by hordes or armies with good Ward saves (Slaves to Darkness, Nurgle) but if it can maneuver into the right opposition the game is often over in the first turn.

Bryan Lofton – Grinnin’ Blades – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Kruleboyz Skirmishers

Thoughts

Hey a 5-0 Kruleboyz! Love to see it.

Quite a bit different from the usual lists, no Boltboyz (or Killbows for that matter), this is focused on Skirmishing. 40 Gutrippaz is a lot hardier than you would think with the -1 to hit against them, they can keep things busy while the backline heroes and the other infantry do their job. With the Killaboss in tow they won’t all run from battleshock, making picking them up even more of a headache than it should be.

Monsta-killaz get to hone in on any, well, Monsters the opponent happens to have by blocking Monstrous Rampages and giving them Strike-last. They’re also pretty damn good in combat with 3 -1 Rend attacks a piece per model. Daggok’s Stab Ladz is an insane value at 70 points, giving a 50-50 shot at -1 to attack to help the resiliency of the infantry doing the heavy lifting.

Supporting this lot is the 2 Shaman, putting poison onto whichever melee units can most benefit from it at the time and casting the ever important Blizzard and Hoarfrost. Gobbsprakk is one of the best anti-casters in the game, shutting down a lot of casting threats by dealing up to D6 mortal wounds to enemy wizards. The Snatchaboss can be a real disruptive presence, doing some decent damage and picking up a potentially problematic model like a unit champion or even a Hero.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Ashlee Hayden – Lumineth Realm-lords (Alumnia): Bladelords and Dawnriders with a collection of foot wizards, Light of Eltharion and Severus.
• 4th – Chris Creech – Slaves to Darkness (Knights of the Empty Throne): Belakor and a Chaos Sorcerer lead Varanguard, Knights and Warcry cultists.
• 5th – Joseph Alberter – Sons of Behemat (King Brodd’s Stomp): Brodd with 2 Gatebreakers and a Warstomper.
• 6th – Kenneth King – Sons of Behemat (King Brodd’s Stomp): also Brodd with 2 Gatebreakers and a Warstomper.
• 7th – Nick Swope – Hedonites of Slaanesh (Pretender’s Host): A melee focused list with Sigvald and a Keeper of Secrets with Daemonettes and Seekers of both stripes.
• 8th – Dillon Corcoran – Cities of Sigmar (Vindicarum): A witch Hunter focused list packed with Warhammer Warbands and the Pontifex.
• 9th – Marco Hernandez – Ironjawz (Da Choppas): See showdown.

Ice Breaker Age Of Sigmar GT – Renegade Wargaming

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Roseville, MN, US on April 27 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Spring the Trap

Daniel Thorson – Seraphon:
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vs.

Daniel Dowell – Slaves to Darkness:
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Thoughts

This is an interesting matchup and unlike much we’ve seen on showdowns in a while. The Seraphon list isn’t your bread and butter Slann mortal wound bomb list, and the Slaves to Darkness list is a very hyper-elite list, with just Archaon, a Chaos Sorcerer and a few Cavalry (though I’d hesitate to call Varanguard “just” cavalry).

On paper I’d say the Slaves to Darkness player has a real edge here. With the Nurgle marked Varanguard and Archaon, the list should excel very well in a 3 objectives situation where they just need to hunker down on two objectives and wait it out. Mark of Nurgle Varanguard are rarely seen but that -1 to wound is brutal if you want something that can take a hit and stay there. This is to say nothing of Archaon, who is one of the harder models to put down in the game without some real concentrated force.

On the flip side though, it may be advantageous that this is not a Mortal Wound spam list like Seraphon usually is. Most of the units in here have Wards specifically against mortals, so the trick against them is a bunch of attacks with decent rend. Coalesced Seraphon are specifically good at that. Aggradron Lancers gain more attacks the more they’re stuck in, so they tend to want to carve away at opponents at a decent pace.

The fight comes down to the Seraphon winning, by only a single point.

Result

Seraphon Victory – 26 – 25

Daniel Thorson – Seraphon (Koatl’s Claw) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Coalesced Seraphon

Thoughts

We’re starting to see more coalesced lists pop up which is great. Aggradon Riders are a good unit, but Starborne lists have so much front loaded onto Heroes that it’s hard to give them more than a single slot in the list. As you can probably guess, these are the focus here. Aggradon Lancers get a “Rage Score” which goes up every turn they’re in combat, so unlike most cavalry they tend to want to get stuck in and slowly push the battle in their favor.

Koatl’s Claw grants them +1 to wound, a very important buff and the General has been kitted out in a way that is very clever. The Vengeful Defender trait lets two of these guys dash up the field each Hero phase for free, which gives them unparalleled mobility. Giving them Arcane Tome gives a pretty durable Andtorian Locus to fulfill the requirements for Spellcasting Savant.

The Skink Oracle is a clever addition. It’s warscroll spell stops enemy’s from retreating, so the Aggradon Lancer’s Rage Score doesn’t get reset and blocks Inspiring Presence, so the enemy can’t try and stop battleshock tests.

Rounding it off, Ripperdactyl Riders are a cheap way to fulfill Surround and Destroy (As Seraphon can often suffer with lack of good battle tactics). The Ripperdactyle Chief can make them a surprisingly decent force to round off the list.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Joe Krier – Flesh-eater Courts (Hollowmourne Grand Court): A Morbheg Knight and Beastflayer focused list.
• 3rd – Daniel Dowell – Slaves to Darkness (Knights of the Empty Throne): See Showdown.
• 4th – Dave Bonselaar – Beasts of Chaos (Allherd): Bullgors and lots of chaff.
• 5th -Paul Wilmes – Nighthaunt (Emerald Host): Bladegheist Revenants and lots of chainrasps.
• 6th – Rob Hanley – Skaventide: Triple grey seers and a collection of Jezzails, Stormfiends, Acolytes and an Abomination.

Wrap Up

A modest week, but the number of lists popping up still remain refreshingly diverse. Seems there may still be some gold to be mined from third edition yet. See you readers next week!