Greetings realm-watchers and welcome back to another edition of CI! Two tournaments this week, both offering up some different lists than we’ve seen over the past few weeks and reassure us that it’s not all about some High Elves and Goblins in a damp cave. More specifically, ability to throw down in the combat phase reigns supreme this week.

Realmgate Rampage II

38-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Schenectady, New York US on March 04 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Anthony Trentanelli – Slaves to Darkness: Cabalists bridge
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Marcella Helu – Bloodtoofs: Piggies
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Ironjawz are in a bit of a weird spot at the moment in the sense that while their warscrolls represent some pretty appealing efficiency, their place in the landscape has shifted somewhat as more 3rd edition books come out and the baseline quality of some of the other combat armies has been lifted. In this case, Slaves vs Jawz represent a sort of quantity vs quality showdown, as the pigs are easily more ‘efficient’ than the Chaos Knights… but they find themselves bouncing right off them due to the Mark of Nurgle and Eroding Icon.

Why is this a problem? Well Ironjawz only really shine if they’re able to trigger Smashin’ and Bashin’ multiple times a turn to cheat the activation wars and not have to take a swing back from their opponent. Let’s not forget that outside of their heroes, those units are on at best a 4+ save with no additional resiliency baked into the warscroll. That spells trouble when they’re staring down 10 Chosen and 6 Varanguard, pound for pound two of the most threatening melee units in the game.

Result

Slaves to Darkness Victory – 35 – 11

Anthony Trentanelli – Slaves to Darkness – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Cabalists Bridge

Thoughts

The comfortable build that many Chaos players have found success with, the basic idea if you’re not familiar is to use Draw on Power on both the heroes (thanks to Cabalists) to get a total of 5 casts rolling 3d6 rather than 2 (again, thanks to Cabalists). Said spells are invested in Bridge (for the mobility of the Chosen/Cavalry), Daemonic speed (3d6 charge for mounted unit), Daemonic Power (+1 hit/wound for a unit),  as well as Mystic Shield and Chaotic Conduit.

STD are great but only really shine when they can consistently get their spells off, and if the plan goes well (and it usually will with Master of Magic), Anthony can gently push 10 Chaos Knights and one of the Varanguard/Chosen into their opponents face turn one and pin them into their deployment zone. As a one drop, the potential to go second and get an early double into 2 is devastating, as with their buffs up the Slaves army is capable of lifting their opponent off the board before they even appreciably leave their deployment zone.

Joseph Pagano – Knights Excelsior – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Karazai!

Thoughts

Strike quick and strike hard – with the Annihilators and the Celestant Prime lending some mortal wound punch from the skies, either acting as distraction pieces or simply supplementing the real star of the show – Karazai. With 3 Praetors desperately sprinting to keep up, Karazai can potentially do a ton of damage on a turn by turn basis (and with a recent points drop he’s more enticing than he’s ever been).

Is it a formula for sustained success? Well that can depend on how many high damage ranged armies the army matches up against, but in a metagame that’s increasingly seeing a greater importance in melee armies that can hold the center, Karazai becomes a lot more appealing.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Samuel Gould – Khorne: Archaon makes an appearance in this Reapers of Vengeance list that seeks to win big with him and Skarbrand or lose big with the handful of Blood-tithe generators Reavers leisurely jogging alongside
• 4th – Frederic Bigras-Burrogano – Flesh-eater Courts: FEC continues to chug along with it’s now quite old book, this list centered around an Incarnate and 9 Crypt Flayers in Blisterkin
• 5th – Carl Ong – Gloomspite Gitz: The standard Jaws of Mork shell of a bunch of buff pieces turning 36 Squig herd and 15 Boingrot Bounderz into unholy terrors
• 6th – Ryan Muskopf – Nurgle: Double Maggoth lord in Droning Guard, utilising the oft-overlooked Plague Drones as a significant portion of their battleline
• 7th – Shawn Allen – Stormcast Eternals: 20 Protectors and 6 Longstrikes are the main threats in this Vindictor heavy mixed arms list

Sigmar’s Spice Rack

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Wales GB on March 04 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Mathew Davies – Slaves to Darkness: LOFP buffing stuff the heck up
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Rowan Kemeys – Blessed Sons: Triple Maggoth Lord
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Fun fact – a lot of the negative stuff that Nurgle does doesn’t actually work on units with the Nurgle keyword for thematic reasons. Second fun fact: There actually isn’t all that many things that Nurgle can do to lift 10 Nurgle Chaos Knights in their face with the Eroding Icon to be effectively -1 to wound, -1 to rend against them and oh yeah, a 5+ ward against mortal wounds baked into their warscroll.

Without any appreciable flying ability to play the objective game beyond ‘push my shit up the board and blow you off objectives’, Rowan was always going to struggle to score points against this style of list. That said, triple Maggoth lords and shutting off command abilities with Overpowering Stench will help a great deal in fighting out of the deployment zone and onto the center objectives.

Result

Slaves to Darkness Victory – 12 – 8

Mathew Davies – Slaves to Darkness – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Be’lakor and friends

Thoughts

Legion of the First Prince isn’t really a well explored archetype within the competitive community, as players flocked to Host of the Everchosen for a second banner and better rallies, or Cabalists for the consistent spellcasting. Mathmallow has decided to take them for a spin to take advantage of the sheer toolbox versatility the subfaction gives you.

At first glance, marking the Warshrine Slaanesh is a bit odd when it has no target to give 3d6 charge, but that’s where the subfaction comes in. Matt can give the Chosen the mark of slaanesh for a turn, give them a 3d6 charge and then funnel them through the Bridge. On the following turn once they’re in their opponents face and facing resistance, he can swap over to the Mark of Nurgle for extra toughness.

Why even do all this? Well they keep the original mark, which means the Chosen will be rolling on the EOTG table repeatedly throughout the game, making it very easy to get rend 3 or 4 Chosen by the end of the game. In fact, Matt tells me one game he got the unit up to rend 5!

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Natty Rees – Lumineth Realm-lords: Having played against this style of list (Ymetrica), I can tell you that playing against Teclis, Avalenor and a whole bunch of Stone Guard is an absolute nightmare for many armies… even just killing a unit feels like a steep challenge
• 3rd – David Towsey – Stormcast Eternals: Another Karazai list! this one swapping out the Celestant-Prime for Yndrasta amongst other mild tweaks to help give the infantry portions of the list a bit more staying power
• 4th – Rowan Kemeys – Nurgle: See showdown
• 5th – Aaron Boyan – Ossiarch Bonereapers: The bone accountants continue to enjoy a sort of renaissance in the aftermath of Bounty Hunters going bye bye, with this Petrifex list offering a bit of everything in ranged punch, durability and a big brick of Mortek Guard supported by Arkhan and a Harvester

Wrap Up

Light load this week, but some interesting lists all the same and proof that while Slaves to Darkness might not be dominating the overall win rate, the depth of the book is such that it’s more than possible to go 5-0 and take out a tournament with the boys in plate.

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.