Christmas is right around the corner and it means tournaments are winding down for the holidays – this week has a big old bash in America to discuss, but that’s it. Savour it folks!

Everwinter Grand Tournament

95-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Boston, MA, United States on December 10 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Anthony Lawrence – Soulblight Gravelords: Kastelai Mixed Arms
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Zach Boyce – Skaventide: Thanquol Stormfiends
Army List - Click to Expand

Result

Kastelai Dynasty Victory – 31 – 14

Thoughts

Stormfiends love to nom on delicious melee units like Blood Knights or Grave Guard… but thankfully this list is able to tuck both units in reserves, with the GG going into the grave sites and the Blood Knights able to outflank. Being able to mitigate what the Stormfiends are capable of shooting at will help considerably, and both units are more than capable of lifting the Stormfiends and Thanquol if they’re able to get into combat unharrassed.

There’s still the Warbringer to deal with, but melee monsters are something Kastelai are happy to contend with as they match up quite well with most.

Anthony Lawrence – Kastelai Dynasty – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Kastelai Beat Down

Thoughts

As with most SBGL lists, this is all about leveraging buffs onto efficient units. Grave-Sand gives a 5+ Ward bubble for a turn around the Necromancer to help improve durability on a key turn, whereas Rousing Commander let’s the Vampires (other than Cado) benefit from +1 Damage, +1 Wounds and +2 to run and charge for a turn – in this list that’d be the Coven Throne and the 10 Blood Knight death star. Want more buffs? Neferata can make a unit pseudo ethereal (ignoring negative modifiers but not positive) for some additional toughness with the Dark Mist spell, or use her Command Ability to project a bubble of -1 to hit in melee.

The other interesting element here is Cado, who operates as an independent operator that’s typical purpose is simply to make back his points effortlessly and harass. He’s 135 points and could potential throw out 10 mortal wounds in the combat phase if he lines up his opportunity, which gives him some serious punch up potential. He cannot gain a subfaction keyword so there’s no Kastelai synergy here, but honestly he doesn’t need it… he’s simply a rock solid warscroll.

Jacob Brandon – Skaventide – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Eshin harrassment

Thoughts

The Skaven book is deeper than I think many might claim, as there’s more to them than Thanquol + Stormfiends. This list leverages the mortal wound output and deep strike potential of Gutter Runners and Night Runners. It’s difficult to make a warscroll that does mortal wound on 6s to hit truly bad, and these guys are cheap enough that while they will die in droves… they might just be able to kill more than their cost before they hit your dead pile.

Two units of Jezzails are a fun inclusion that makes a lot of sense if your plan is precision damage – they can sit back until the Runners have done their shooting and finish off a wounded but not quite dead unit, and their presence means your opponent can’t simply sit back, it forces engagement.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Lucas McConnell – Daughters of Khaine (5-0): This Norathi list’s innovation is that it brings 2 Stormstrike Chariots for tanky pieces to pin units and help out with chip mortals.
• 4th – Nate Trentanelli – Nighthaunt (4-0-1): A Scarlet Doom list that goes for only 40 BGR, a suite of support heroes and 2 units of Hexwraiths AND 2 units of Chainrasps
• 5th – Jiwan Noah Singh – Beasts of Chaos (4-1): Lot’s and lots of Tzaangors, in foot and disc Enlightened flavours
• 6th – Jon Anderson – Lumineth Realm-lords (4-1): Stone guard spam with Teclis
• 7th – Matt Beasley – Tzeentch (4-1): A true grab bag of stuff – a mix of arcanites, horrors, Tzaangors and even a Mutalith Vortex beast
• 8th – Gavin Grigar: Daughters of Khaine (4-1): It’s Morathi and the Bow Snakes with their latest single – Chronomantic Cogs!

Wrap Up

You did remember to do your Christmas shopping didn’t you? I did say I would check in on you! What do you mean No? Quick – you still have time!

Ellarr also has his own Youtube channel to cover other aspects of competitive Age of Sigmar which you can find here. If you have any questions or comments leave one down below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.