It’s another week of mostly smaller armies, but all over the place. 2 events in the US, 1 in Canada and 1 in Austria. You know how much I like events that take place outside of the Anglosphere so let’s start with that one.

Tales in the Wood X – GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Tirol, Austria on April 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Every Step is Forward

Silvan “BabyFace” Affolter – Seraphon:
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vs.

Alexander “Cedric19” Spörl – Blades of Khorne:
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Thoughts

Ultimate magic mastery vs. anti magic mastery. While the Seraphon can excel quite well in this mission, Blades of Khorne may be the absolute worst faction for them to bump up against short of maybe Null Myriad OBR. I’d say Khorne still edges them out, 1 in 3 chance of negating a spell and generating blood tithes is real good for them.

Khorne also tends to not care about retreating, it’s rare they would bother. They can use Murderlust to interrupt any possible charges that might give Seraphon an advantage on capturing and also charge themselves as needed.

It ends in a pretty close victory for the Khorne army.

Result

Blades of Khorne Victory – 12 – 8

Alexander “Cedric19” Spörl – Blades of Khorne (Reapers of Vengeance) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Khorne good stuff.

Thoughts

You know Khorne at this point. Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury and Skarbrand lead the show while the other characters give necessary buffs. The Blood Warriors are a pretty solid hammer and tarpit unit as well to hold their ground against the enemy. Bloodreavers, Flesh Hounds and Furies can all scoop up open objectives and if they die, easy Blood tithes.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Johannes “Hansi” Stuhler – Orruk Warclans (Big WAAAGH!): A real grab bag of everything good from each faction, surprisingly no
• 3rd – Marco “Nexiz” Wachter – Lumineth Realm-lords (Zaitrec): Teclis, Severeth and Eltharion with the usual suite of Dawnriders, Wardens and Bladelords.
• 4th – Alexander “Sluki” Sluka – Kharadron Overlords (Barak-Nar): Gotrek and an Ironclad with the usual Arkanaut Company and Thunderers and Navigator, Chemist and Endrinmaster.
• 5th – Yves “Bägge” Baggenstos – Gloomspite Gitz (King’s Gitz): Focus on Squiggs, with some Sporesplatta Fanatics. Surprise appearance of Trugg on a non Trogg themed list.
• 6th – Silvan “BabyFace” Affolter – Seraphon (Fangs of Sotek): See showdown.
• 7th – Adrian “Nantel” Gojdz – Seraphon (Fangs of Sotek): Seraphon good stuff.

False Alarm GT/24

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sparwood, BC, Canada on April 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Cole Winsor – Idoneth Deepkin:
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vs.

Dom Elson – Maggotkin of Nurgle:
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Thoughts

This is a tough one for Idoneth all around. Idoneth really want armies they can hit and clear out in one fell swoop. Against this list that is going to be extremely difficult. With all 3 Maggoth Lords and the Glottkin they struggle to make decent headway into something with that many wounds a 5+ save. Their movement is also handicapped by the Glottkin’s Blightkrieg allowing them to be charged before the proper moment.

The saving grace for this list is the Allopexes, which can do a fair amount of damage at range (and not risk disease) but with the recent nerf to Fuethan the damage output is likely not going to cut it.

The game ends with a pretty decisive victory for Nurgle.

Result

Blessed Sons Victory – 522 – 10

Dom Elson – Maggotkin of Nurgle (Blessed Sons) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Triple Maggoth Lords and Glottkin

Thoughts

The Triple Maggoth Lord and Glottkin combo has gained a lot of traction as 3rd edition wraps up. Short of Sons of Behemat, few play the Monster game better. Bloab is one of the best casters in the army on both offense and defense while the other two are solid melee combatants.

The Glottkin is a really difficult character to take down with his 20 wounds and 5+ ward. Blightkrieg allows you to charge at anyone trying to get clever and opens up a lot of disruptive tricks, making sure combat only happens on your terms.

Michael Nonomura – Koatl’s Claw – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Saurus Warriors

Thoughts

Finally a different Seraphon list! This not only excludes Kroak or a Slann but both. Instead this focuses on big Dinos doing big Dino things. The two Saurus Oldbloods function as your mobile command center, they do decent damage but the real highlight is issuing two orders from each, which plays well with the huge number of units here. All Out Attack and All Out Defence on 2 units a piece each round? Fantastic.

The Saurus Guard and Astrolith Bearer provide their usual purpose, eating up hits attempting to shoot at their heroes (in particular the Starseer) while the Astrolith Bearer gives a 5+ ward and +1 to cast to the starseer. The Starseer took Heavenly Frenzy which lets a unit Run and Charge, hugely useful here.

The legions of Saurus Warriors do the bulk of the work. They can do decent damage and are pretty resilient, throw enough of em at a problem and they’ll probably win out eventually. Hunters of Huachi provide covering fire, pelting chaff with ranged fire and popping out of nowhere to snag objectives.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Cole Winsor – Idoneth Deepkin (Fuethán): See showdown.
• 4th – Tom Carter – Kruleboyz (Big Yellers): Kruleboyz good stuff
• 5th – Carl Ong – Seraphon (Koatl’s Claw): Another Slann-free list with huge blocks of Saurus Warriors, Kroxigars and Aggradon Lancers.
• 6th – Derek Ali – Sons of Behemat (King Brodd’s Stomp): King Brodd, Warstomper, Kraken-Eater and 4 Mancrushers.
• 7th – Josh Trenholm – Gloomspite Gitz (King’s Gitz): Squig focus with some moonclan for backup.

Trash Clash in the Bluegrass

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lexington, KY, United States on April 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Lines of Communication

Nicholas True – Slaves to Darkness:
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vs.

Thomas Lyons – Hollowmourne Grand Court:
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Thoughts

This one really could go either way. Lines of Communication doesn’t really favor mobility like some missions – if anything the ability to stand on two objectives and take a hit is a serious boon, which is a point for the Slaves to Darkness in normal circumstances.

However this list lacks some of the more resilient units of the faction – only 10 Nurgle Chaos Warriors and no Chosen. Varanguard can be tanky with the Mark of Nurgle but these are Khorne boys. This list focuses more on fast charges, mobile units to steal objectives and screen units and Be’lakor to shut down major threats.

The Flesh-Eater Courts in most versions tend to be heavy on high impact charges. While this doesn’t have near the Morbheg Knight spam we see in many lists, a unit of 6 can do some significant work. Between them counting as 18 units and the 20 man unit of Crypt Ghouls, the Slaves to Darkness are significantly outnumbered and likely lack the resilience to handle multiple charges.

The battle ends pretty cleanly for Flesh Eater Courts.

Result

Hollowmourne Grand Court Victory – 13 – 7

Thomas Lyons – Flesh Eater Courts (Hollowmourne Grand Court) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Grab bag with a focus on on Horrors

Thoughts

Rather than skew any one way this comes in a few directions to have answers to multiple threats. The Archregent is just baseline good. Both a spellcaster and a source of recursion to any unit. The Gorewarden is a mobile piece, able to very easily set itself up for the blizzard on the next turn, especially if they get the double. The Infernal Courtier supports the Crypt Flayers, which are one of the only ranged attacks in the army, by giving them +1 damage. A 5+ Ward from the prayer granted by their artefact is not a bad deal either.

Morbheg Knights are terrifying, even with only one unit of 6. They do Impact Wounds and count as 3 on the point if they charged. Since they can retreat and charge for free, this is basically guaranteed. Crypt Horrors are solid hammers for a low cost, and Crypt Flayers are as stated one of your only ranged attacks. It’s not even a bad one, and can soften up some units or remove Chaff before your charge.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Nicholas True – Slaves to Darkness (Knights of the Empty Throne): See showdown.
• 3rd – Frederick Schmidt – Orruk Warclans (Big WAAAGH!): Orruk good stuff.
• 4th – Brandon Harvey – Maggotkin of Nurgle (Blessed Sons): A Herohammer focused listed with Orgutts and Glottkin with support from some smaller hero and minimal infantry. Surprise guest star a Nurgle Daemon Prince.
• 5th – Ian Hartsough – Orruk Warclans (Big WAAAGH!): More Orruk good stuff, with some Moonclan Stabbas for some extra bodies.

The Tax Man Cometh

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Edmond, OK, United States on April 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Power Flux

Marcus Miller – Sons of Behemat:
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vs.

Alex Cotter – Gloomspite Gitz:
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Thoughts

This is a really good mission for Sons of Behemat. While they are at a slight disadvantage with lack of an Andtorian Locus, they can cover the 2 objectives each turn quite handedly, and there are multiple wizards for them to kill in the Gloomspites.

A trogg list could table a Sons of Behemat list, the damage output is certainly there. But they would need to move quickly and that’s not always a guarantee, a lot of it is going to come down to Blizzard and spiking on attack rolls, which just didn’t seem to come together.

Result

Sons of Behemat Victory – 513 – 21

Marcus Miller – Sons of Behemat (King Brodd’s Stomp) – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

King Brodd’s Stomp

Thoughts

King Brodd is pretty much the way to play at this point. So you bring him for his buffs and just generally being a pretty good killing machine. Gatebreakers are the overall best DPS in the faction for most armies, so why not bring two? Warstomper is the cheapest, so it often needs to fill in the last slot.

Not a lot of complexity here, it’s Sons of Behemat what did you expect?

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Joe Vucic – Cities of Sigmar (Vindicarum): Heavy focus on melee infantry and cavalry.
• 3rd – James Matthews – Slaves to Darkness (Cabalists): Herohammer focus, and 60 Chaos Warriors. 
• 4th – Alex Cotter – Gloomspite Gitz (Glogg’s Megamob): See showdown.
• 5th – Joel Follmeyer – Nighthaunt (Scarlet Doom): Nighthaunt good stuff with an emphasis on Bladegheist Revenant spam.
• 6th – Chase Layman – Cities of Sigmar (Excelsis): Cavalier spam.
• 7th – Jason Burau – Slaves to Darkness (Cabalists): A really off brand list with a focus on Knights, Warriors and the Krondspine.

Wrap Up

Another quiet, but diverse week in the Mortal Realms. The events are smaller, as we wait between majors, and people are winding down waiting for Fourth Edition. The positive is this has led to some pretty interesting diverse list building and we keep seeing the meta shaking up. See you next week!