It’s incredible to think that not that long after the release of Ogor Mawtribes and Slaves to Darkness, that they’d end up taking a back seat to other armies, both old and new. Let’s dig into the whats and I’ll revisit the why at the end here.

FLG Cherokee Open Age Of Sigmar Championship

79-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cherokee, North Carolina US on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Dale Ervin – Jaws of Mork Gloomspite Gitz: Squigs squigs squigs
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vs.

Calvin Rarie – Glogg’s Megamob Gloomspite Gitz: Troggs troggs troggs
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Thoughts

It’s Gloomspite civil war as two largely distinct armies face off, with only Skragrott and a Cave shaman in appearing in both. Amusingly enough when there’s a Gitz mirror there’s a roll off to determine who gets the benefits of the moon, but thankfully Skragrott and the Shrine both give out an aura that counts as the Bad Moon so it’s not nearly as punishing as you might initially think.

That said, it’s going to be a tricky one for Calvin and his Troggs, as his units are largely played as they are on the warscroll, which both makes them excellent independent operators but also means they’re not going to be nearly as efficient as a buffed up Squig herd thats intent on focusing down one unit at a time. Troggs want to just about survive combat and whittle down their opponent in a grindy affair, but Squigs with the Squigboss buff, the Snufflers buff AND the Marshcrawla can have either 5 attacks on the charge at 3s/3s/-1/1 each (that’s 180 attacks for the big unit), or 144 attacks with the same statline that do mortal wounds on 6s to hit in addition… Yowza. Oh and that unit would have a 5+ ward and potentially even an extra bonus attack if you roll a six.

Result

Jaws of Mork Victory – 24 – 21

Dale Ervin – Jaws of Mork – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Squig death star

Thoughts

I think until Games Workshop adjust the faction we’re looking at the army to beat in the game right now, and the funny part is that Squig Hoppers, Squig Herd and Boingrot Bounderz are all very devastating units when benefiting from the same buff suite in the book (Squigboss, Sneaky Snufflers, Marshcrawla and/or a Gobbapalooza). This flavour of brutal efficiency uses the Squig Herd, which can potentially return up to 6D3 squigs to the unit in each of your hero phases, meaning that even though you can’t rally them (they can’t receive commands) you can still play the long game exceptionally well with them, provided you have the Indomitable Triumph to stop the whole unit running the moment they take damage. Speaking of running, for each model that runs you can roll a dice and on a 2+ do a MW to a model within 9″ of the fleeing model… notably this isn’t a shooting attack so it acts as a rather devastating hero killer.

Oh and I haven’t even mentioned that you can recycle units through the Loon shrine to keep the value train rolling.

Mathew Swinney – Stormcast Eternals – 2nd Place

The List

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Archetype

Just the good Stormcast warscrolls I guess?

Thoughts

What is impressive I think about the Stormcast book is that despite being the first book released, it’s managed to stay relevant throughout all the releases that have since followed and after taking several significant nerfs. This list wants to be more versatile than what it’s facing off against, with access to Deep Strike, very potent long range shooting as well as one of the premiere hammer/anvil combo units in the game in the Fulminators.

Bastian is a more unusual pick, but his ability to ping wounds off things from across the board make him a rather interesting Galletian Champion killer, and he’s still an absolute beast in combat.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 was:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Jonathan Roberts – Lumineth Realm-lords (5-0): It’s the Helon Teclis list you’ve seen the past month or so on this column, with Gnashing Jaws and a unit of Wardens instead of 10 more Sentinels than typical
• 4th – Michael Schlegelmilch – Stormcast Eternals: 42 Castigators, all in MSU units of 3. What a frightening mad list that would also be very tricky to actually kill for many armies if he can space them out effectively and just blot out room to manouvre
• 5th – Calvin Rarie – Gloomspite Gitz: See Showdown
• 6th – Zachary Shinn – Skaven: A double Verminlord + Thanquol list that goes light on bodies and heavy on Endless spells, taking Spellportal, Warp Lightning Vortex and Lauchon (for Thanquol)
• 7th – Kevin Lathers – Fyreslayers: Another top finish for the mohawks, this time with a list that brings 60 Vulkite Berzerkers to get buffed up by the 2 Flamekeepers, using the points saved by not running Hearthguard Berzerkers to give the Runefather general a nice Magmadroth to conquer the mortal realms in
• 8th – Tobias Kempf – Disciples of Tzeentch: Another Incarnate summoning list, this one using Eternal Conflagration to buff up the shooting of it’s 10 Pink Horrors

Warhammer Age Of Sigmar Matched Play Event

74-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England GB on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Toby Resnick – Lumineth Realm-lords: Helon Teclis
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vs.

Mike Stewart – Fyreslayers: Double Flamekeeper Vulkite Berzerkers
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Thoughts

So what actually works against the potent shooting of a Lumineth Realm-lords list that wants to pepper you with long range mortal wound spells and take control of the board from round 3 onwards when your opponent is mostly dead? Well it turns out if you have access to a 4+ spell ignore and a 4+ rally, as well as a high wound count it’s quite possible. Enter the boys in orange.

To clarify, Nulsidian Icon is a powerful artefact to give an aura of a 4+ spell ignore to try and mitigate the damage potential of spells like Searing Rays of Light and the MWs from Runes of Petrification, and the 4+ rally the Battlesmith affords his allies means he can just sit on the objectives and yell ‘come at me bro’ to Teclis and his bunch of lackies.

Typically the gameplan to pick apart Fyreslayers is ‘shoot and kill the squishy foot heroes’, but with Lumineth lists typically going for a 1 drop because of their need to control priority, they can’t actually target the foot heroes this season provided they stand within 1″ of one of the Vulkite Berzerker units.

Result

Fyreslayers Victory – 25 – 15

Mike Stewart – Fyreslayers – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Vulkites with a billion buffs

Thoughts

It’s mostly the same list we covered last week, just with a few tweaks (shields on one unit for a better triumph bid, some artefact adjustments). The reality is that many of the top armies in the game right now don’t really have the tools to deal with a grindy blob of Dwarves in the middle, and this archetype has proven it’s got the ability to slap down Lumineth, which may make it a compelling option for tournament goers over the next few months.

Simon Rooke – Jaws of Mork – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Squigs

Thoughts

This list drops some manned Squig units to fit in the whole smorgasbord of Squig buffs, including Grinkrak and his Looncourt. Grinkrak is notable in that he can give a friendly unit within 3″ fight on death in the combat phase, making those Squigs an absolutely brutal unit to have to try and engage in combat. The rest of the list is mostly what we’ve come to expect, with 40 Shootas serving as the disposable screens and objective squatters.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 was:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Marco D’Anna – Nurgle (5-0): A double Maggoth lord list that swaps out flies for Blightkings and brings along Be’lakor for his controlling utility
• 4th – Phil Marshall – Slaves to Darkness: Phil’s Cabalists list puts up another strong finish, with it’s 10 Chosen and 6 Varanguard faltering only against the eventual winner Mike Stewart
• 5th – Toby Resnick – Lumineth Realm-lords: See showdown
• 6th – Simon Eccles – Flesh-eater Courts: Speccles brings the long in the tooth FEC book to an impressive 4-1 finish, with this Blisterskin list relying heavily on summoning on additional bodies to supplement the double big boys and 9 Crypt Flayers
• 7th – Hogg Euan – Ossiarch Bonereapers: OBR have enjoyed an unexpected renaissance, with the humble Mortek Crawler uniquely positioned to absolutely dunk on the mass bodies low bravery armies like the Gloomspite Gitz lists terrorising the metagame at the moment
• 8th – James Lake – Soulblight Gravelords: Can you beat 120 Zombies? Okay can you beat 120 zombies with a bunch of buff pieces and 20 Graveguard to act as their ace for key combats? Yeah…

Small Town Throwdown: Smoke On The Water

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Alpine, California US on February 25 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Gareth Thomas – Khorne: Reapers of Vengeance Skarbrand
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vs.

Gregory Brewer – Big WAAAGH!: The coolest army in the game played by cool people like me
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Thoughts

The Khorne list takes advantage of a few sneaky ally inclusions like the Unmade (to shut off inspiring presence) and the Cygor (to punish foot heroes successfully casting spells) on top of the bargain basement battleline they have (because the warscrolls suck, naturally) to leverage a stacked hero slot – two Bloodthirsters and Skarbrand, who can destroy your opponents entire army if not killed extremely quickly.

Luckily, Gregory has two Wurgoggs, who have the unique ability to dump mortal range 12″ away that both AREN’T A SPELL (so no Khorne shutdown shenanigans) and don’t require them to actually get into combat with Skarbrand either. Skarbrand doesn’t like being lifted off the board before he even gets to do anything, it makes him pretty mad.

Result

Big WAAAGH! Victory – 20 – 16

Gregory Brewer – Big WAAAGH! – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Big Waaagh Energy

Thoughts

BW are near and dear to my heart, as I’ve played them often at tournaments myself, and they sneakily benefited a lot from the current battlepack in a way that might have flown under the radar for some. For starters, the army now has access to a 5+ ward artefact in the Gryph-Feather charm, which Greg uses to help make his Wurgogg Mask ability less… well self inflicted death inducing. Two Wurgoggs is a nightmare for any combat army to realistically deal with.

But that’s not all, as the army just excels at putting down value Galletian Champions that make battle tactics easier, and recent point drops to both Ardboyz and Brutes mean the army is capable of putting a pretty impressive number of wounds on the board.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Gareth Thomas – Reapers of Vengeance: See showdown
• 3rd – Chris Daugherty – Idoneth Deepkin: A rather shooty Idoneth list that brings 6 Morrsarr to backup the Idoneth Murderking, and a Wildmage ally from Cities to give a unit +2 to run and charge rolls.
• 4th – Shane Lambert – Skaven: A rather balanced Skryre style list, with a lot of Clanrat bodies to stand in front of 2 Plagueclaws, 2 Warp Lightning Cannons and a Doomwheel. Skaven units being as cheap as they are he’s able to also bring a Hellpit abomination and 2 Plague Priests for a chance at some Great Plagues.
• 5th – Matthew Barker – Nurgle: Glottkin makes an appearance, acting as a means for a unit of 10 Blightkings to hurtle up the board and counter charge in his opponents turn, as well as 3 Varanguard to act as an efficient and fast flanking unit.
• 6th – Maxwell Henretta – Ogor Mawtribes: A meatfist list that skips Gnoblars and Ironblasters entirely for just a whole bunch of Gluttons and Ironguts. Both units quietly representing a pretty significant amount of damage output and are just annoying enough to shoot off the board that they can cause trouble for ranged lists.

Wrap Up

So why are Slaves to Darkness and Ogors not dominating? Well I expect in the former’s case it’s because they have a real bad matchup against Gitz and Fyreslayers, who are capable of outlasting them and grinding them down with layered buffs on cheaper units. As for Ogors, they saw some pretty significant price hikes on their strongest build, and they likewise don’t have the sort of efficiency that these smaller armies have with layered buffs.

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.