A mix of events using old and new battlescroll rules, with one even using new Cities of Sigmar rules and another the updated Ironjawz rules! I’ll note in the opening paragraph for each event (where possible) which set of rules they were using. Transition weeks are weird.

Hammerfest 2023

78-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Houston, TX, US on September 23 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This was using pre-battlescroll rules.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Kel Pigg – Barak-Zilfin:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Ryan Rutherford – Big WAAAGH!:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

A rather more classic feeling KO list here from Kel, whose focus is primarily on the Skyvessels more-so than the vertically challenged dudes that might ride inside them. From what I can tell, the basic gameplan here is to have the Riggers ride with the Frigates for two mobile response teams that can jump out of the ships after a charge and lay down an impressive amount of melee damage, while the Ironclad acts as a roaming gun platform that helps finish units off with it’s ram and ferries the Arkanauts onto a central point to try and cling onto a central objective in the midgame.

Going up against it is a BW list that’s gone very heavy on pigs by skipping out on a Megaboss altogether. What’s crucial in this matchup is the Mighty Destroyers ability that can be utilised by those piggies. Essentially, by making a hero phase charge with a unit of pigs, you deny your opponent the ability to use Unleash Hell because that ability is worded to only work in the charge phase.

Essentially, if Ryan is able to get a teleport off early game and make an 8/9″ charge (depending on how many BW points he has), he can tie up the Ironclad and possibly several Frigates with one unit, then bring the rest of the piggies crashing in to surround and destroy. Put another way – I don’t think Kel brought enough gun to this encounter.

Result

Big WAAAGH! Victory – 27 – 10

Ryan Rutherford – Big WAAAGH! – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Hammer heavy BW

Thoughts

There are many ways to approach list design, with I think a lot of importance placed on how you plan on getting value from the units you include in your army. One of the problems many combat armies face is the idea of getting value from every unit, simply because due to the alternating activation nature of the combat phase, many armies end up unable to ‘cash in’ on value before the units they’ve engaged with have been destroyed in a counter attack.

Ryan is playing as Big Waaagh, and thus doesn’t have access to Smashin’ and Bashin’, the Ironjawz tool to ‘cheat’ extra activations and thus bypass this problem. What Ryan has chosen to do here is simply stack up so many efficient hammers that this doesn’t really become a problem – I don’t mind charging three units in and losing one of them on a counter-attack, because my units are cheaper and more effective than yours.

The standard spellcasting shell is also present in the list to give the army some flexibility and power projection outside of combat, with a cheeky Wardokk to act as a blizzard platform. As Ryan wants to have his cake and eat it too, said Wardokk can also use Gorkamorka’s Warcry to give an enemy unit the strikes-last debuff and thus ‘cheat’ an extra combat activation.

Matt Taylor – Null Myriad – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Katakros Cookie Cutter

Thoughts

The event is pre-battlescroll, so this is leveraging the insanely efficient model replenishment abilities of Katakros/Arkhan/the Ossifector at the height of their powers. It’s a good list! It’s probably still good even post-nerf, because of how strong a core there is here.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – James West – Goretide (5-0): Mortal based list that leverages the efficiency of Wrathmongers and their ability to buff up Blood Warriors & Claws of Karanak
• 4th – Thomas Guan – Null Myriad: Tom took a break from Zombie spam to use the other oppressive death army, though this list only runs 3 Immortis Guard in order to afford 4 Morghast as well as Arkhan
• 5th – Robbie “Bear” Steinbring – Vyrkos Dynasty: 160 Zombies with corpse carts and other nonsense
• 6th – Gavin Grigar – Goretide: Similar Wrathmonger/Mortal list to James, though Gavin allies in Theddra and the Godsworn hunt for cheap access to a decent spell in Enfeeblement as well as two units to collect Blood tithe
• 7th – Kel Pigg – Barak-Zilfin: See showdown
• 8th – Randal Brasher – Meatfist: Kragnos & 4 Tyrants, looking to do all the charge mortals and just generally be a nightmare to keep away from your inner castle

Invasion AOS 2023

58-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Agder, NO on September 23 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was *post* battlescroll rules.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Benjamin Flodda – Null Myriad:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Danny Elvestad – Slaves to Darkness:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Ben has adapted to the changes to OBR by going a bit wider… kind of. Instead of a lot of power concentrated in Immortis Guard or Stalkers, he’s concentrated it in some Immortis Guard and 30 Mortek Guard with a Harvester. That presents somewhat of a challenge for Danny, as if that unit of 6 Varanguard *can’t* lift either the Immortis or the Mortek Guard in one combat phase, then they become significantly less effective as their Khorne and Felspear buffs fall off when they are no longer charging.

That is sort of the game here at its core, because neither the Chaos Knights or the 3 man unit of Varanguard are going to put out enough damage to kill either of the big OBR units. Rather unfortunately, this is an instance of a poor rock-paper-scissors outcome – both players have all their eggs in 2-3 baskets, but one basket is self-repairing and the other really doesn’t like that.

Result

Null Myriad Victory – 17 – 3

Benjamin Flodda – Null Myriad – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Katakros – a new era

Thoughts

As it turns out, you can go quite hard on the nerfing for OBR and still leave them a very functional army. The battle traits are still fantastic, as are the enhancements, and the discount for Mortek Guard and the Harvester has at least made that unit considerably more appealing than previous.

Is it as choppy as the previous version? No not really, Mortek are great but they will need Hoarfrost to be able to replicate the kind of combat success that Stalkers/Immortis were capable of. That said, the Harvester does open up The Tithe Demands as a battle tactic option – it’s niche, but OBR struggled a bit for battle tactics and it’s inclusion in this list gives Benjamin just one extra arrow in his quiver, but when you only need to land five arrows to max out your battle tactics, Ben will take it.

Geir Vedeld – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Befouling Host – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Can you do enough damage to kill me quickly? No? You lose

Thoughts

Perhaps one of the more quiet changes in the battlescroll was the significant lift that Nurgle were given in a landscape they were already fairly well equipped to at least go 3-2 or 4-1 in. Points drops to Plaguebearers, as well as the Glottkin has meant that Geir can fit a *lot* of wound density into his list while also including the big Glott who is a force of nature if left alive.

The gameplan is fairly straightforward – summon a Bilepiper pretty quickly thanks to Befouling Host, and use those Beasts of Nurgle and Plaguebearers to shut off pileins and significantly hamper the opponent’s ability to even move around the board. The Glottkin’s charge command ability works at the end of the opponent’s movement phase, and can help leverage the raw power of the Sloppity/Pile-in interaction by letting you tag a bunch of units with one unit of Plaguebearers, taking care only to very lightly touch the corner of a unit once the Daemon unit has made it’s charge. Provided the Bilepiper is nearby, it means whatever units are tied up in combat can only actually fight with one or two models.

It’s a strategy that can take over games very quickly, and capitalise on movement mistakes by the opponent. Well done Geir.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Danny Elvestad – KOTET: See Showdown
• 4th – Oliver Vedeld – KOTET: Be’lakor, 6 Varanguard, 10 Chosen and 6 Ogroids make for a lot of aggressive hammers that are supplemented by Corvus Cabal for battle tactics
• 5th – Knut Vedeld – Big Waaagh!: Popular in this part of europe, Knut has gone for the minimum Ardboys (old version) approach to battleline that then goes heavy on Gore-gruntas and a Mawcrusha to play a more aggressive Ironjawz style of game
• 6th – Simen Lillehagan – Big Waaagh!: Almost the exact same list as Knut’s, just with a shuffling of who the general is and a few odds and ends
• 7th – Tom Kenneth Solli – Reapers of Vengeance: Be’lakor plus a blend of Mortals and Daemons, centered around a large block each of Bloodletters and Blood Warriors
• 8th – Eirik Nyhagen – Ironsunz: It’s funny how close this is to the BW lists above despite being a different army. You lose out on the Wurgogg and Gobsprakk, but Eirik thus gains access to more points for more Brutes, more Pigs and the ability to counter-charge on his opponent’s turn and chain together activations with Smashin’ and Bashin’

Sparkle Party Death Match IX

52-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Seattle, WA, United States on September 23 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. The new cities book is legal for this, whereas the new Battlescroll was not.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Mason Knox – Greywater Fastness: Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Matthias Krushel – Bloodlords: Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Apologies for the Stormcast image fooling people who got excited about their army for a second – we just don’t have a cities image lined up yet. We are yet to enter the cities era properly, but this gives us a taste of things to come. In Greywater Fastness you can issue the AOA three times, and the Fleetmaster gives out +1 attacks to the Privateer unit he issues the command to in addition to the normal effect. With 9 Chariots, this (if my math is right means those 9 chariots put out the following):

• 30 shots 2s 3s rend 2 D3 damage (flat 3 versus Monsters)
• 48 shots 3s 4s rend – D1

Those of you who saw all the Human buff shenanigans you could get up to with Fusiliers might be surprised to see this, but the Elf portion of the book is actually really fucking good too. Anyway, the rest of the list is about giving the Blackguard a 4+ ward (wha?) and shooting the opponent off the table.

That said, Bloodbind, Be’lakor and Bloodletters might have something to say about that. Those chariots won’t want to get close in order to shoot but they’ll have to as they’re fairly short range (18″). This presents a problem as Matthias can use Killer Instinct to jump the Bloodthirster forward, then Bloodbind a unit of chariots into the jaws of his army for those Bloodletters to hack apart. Bloodbind can also be used to pull the Black Guard out of their ward bubble for being near a Sorceress, and the 5+ ward the daemons receive for being more than 8″ away from enemy units comes in very handy against the first turn of shooting.

Result

Bloodlords Victory

Matthias Krushel – Bloodlords – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

You want to castle up and synergise? Lol no

Thoughts

There’s something that’s so delightfully dickish about this list, as it’ll pull you apart with it’s Bloodbind shenanigans, make you stumble with Be’lakor’s Dark Master ability, and just generally be where you don’t want them to be thanks to Murderlust. If you can kill the Bloodthirster and the Bloodletters, you’re pretty much smooth sailing to a victory at that point… but it’s really hard to actually do that.

In a post battlescroll world where OBR and Soulblight got a slap on the wrist, expect Khorne to surge.

Matt Beasley – Guild of Summoners – 2nd Place:

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Cast spells and chew bubble gum

Thoughts

It’s a turbo chicken factory, with almost every unit in the list having at least one spellcast to try and crank out Lords of Change as quickly as possible.

With no Incarnate in the list, there’s room for some cheap diskless Tzaangor Enlightened, as well as 6 Screamers of Tzeentch for a cheap very mobile screen/light hammer combo that can help hold the opponent off until there’s birds with staves everywhere.

The Best of the Rest

They cut to a top bracket after 3 rounds, so this is the order of the top cut… though by necessity some players on this list are only 3-2.

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Mason Knox – Greywater Fastness: See showdown
• 4th – Jeremy Lamoy – Null Myriad: Katakros cookie cutter
• 5th – Michael Tunes – Null Myriad: Michael wants to escape the cookie cutter label by running only 3 Immortis and squeezing in some Mortek Guard and a Liege-Kavalos… he gets away with it for now
• 6th – Matthew Kangiser – Cabalists: A bizarre jumble of Exalted heroes (cheeky Hoarfrost/Blizzard fodder), Sorceror Lords for all those lovely spells and a mix of 30 Splintered Fang, some Chosen & some Chaos Chariots of all things! It’s a fun looking brew
• 7th – Joseph Tsai – Koatl’s Claw: No Slann here, just a lot of Carnosaurs, Kroxigor & Aggrodons
• 8th – Ricky Fischer – King’s Gitz: 18 Rockguts, some Bounderz and a Troggboss/Skragrott to hold the blend together

Flying Monkey Con 2023 – Age Of Sigmar Gt

47-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Wichita, KS, United States on September 23 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was using post battlescroll rules.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Thomas Burgett – Reapers of Vengeance:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Derick Senter – Bloodlords:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Khorne has largely settled into two or three distinct builds – Daemon focused, Mortal focused or a healthy blend of both, with Be’lakor being an optional extra based off preference.

Derick has gone for a Daemon build, and in a post Battlescroll world where the raw power of the Immortis Guard list and Zombie spam no longer make it quite so difficult for the Bloodletters to win through attrition, Daemons gets more and more appealing.

Thomas on the other hand…

Result

Reapers of Vengeance Victory – 28-13

Thomas Burgett – Reapers of Vengeance – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Bloodthirsters

Thoughts

Okay I should probably actually talk about the showdown matchup itself. The reason the BT list won likely has a lot to do with how the mirror match plays out – when both armies have the same movement tools and shenanigans, the Bloodlords ability for better mortals on the charge is somewhat nullified when Thomas could tie them up with Bloodbind, Murderlust or an end of turn charge from his Bloodthirster. Not to mention, Skarbrand and the Insensate Rage BT can really pop off if any 6s to hit are rolled, and the WOK BT can even let two of the Bloodthirsters fight in one activation (with Halo of Blood meaning two Strikes-first BT on your opponent’s turn if they’re engaged in combat), meaning ultimately it’s bad news in a squishy melee mirror for the guy without the big aoe mortal wound Bloodthirster and luck on his side.

Anyway, the list is fun as hell and doesn’t care about things like ‘consistent damage output’ and ‘low variance’ that’s afforded by hammers that throw a lot of dice and have a dependable statline like 3s/3s/-1/1. It wants to throw a few dice and have that Insensate Rage Bloodthirster blow up an entire castle if it gets lucky on those 5 attack dice.

In a combat metagame, Halo of Blood actually acts as both an offensive and defensive tool, because the WOK BT can buddy up with one or both of the other BT and create a strikes-fist bubble that really dominates the midboard.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Derick Senter – Bloodlords: See showdown
• 3rd – Shannon O’Connell – Feast Day: Lots of Crypt Horrors with a total of 3 Abhorrants to summon in additional support
• 4th – Shawn Freed – Fangs of Sotek: Shawn’s solution to the nerf to Rupture was simply to shrug his shoulders and run an Incarnate anyway, cutting Kroak in a surprising move to afford 6 Aggradons
• 5th – Joel Follmeyer – Emerald Host: Lady Olynder at 270 makes an appearance in this fun MSU Grimghast Reaper list that can afford a ton of support pieces like Myrmourns, Spirit Hosts and Chainghasts will still being able to squeeze in Kurboss Velentiowns
• 6th – James Howze – Big Waaagh!: Without 80 point Ardboys, James has opted for Gutrippaz and a unit of Hobgrots as cheap battleline options, with 10 Brutes, 6 Boltboyz and 2*3 Pigs acting as the teeth of the list
• 7th – James Fryer – Meatfist: Kragnos, 4 Charge Mortal Tyrants and a mix of Leadbelchers & Ironguts to support (plus 20 Gnoblars acting as a screen)
• 8th – Joe Vucic – Jaws of Mork: Kragnos, a Squigboss and a single Cave-Shaman, simply acting as enablers to shove a double reinforced Squig Herd and some Bounderz in their opponent’s face (utilising Soulscream Bridge to help the Bounder unit get up board)

Wrap Up

I think the amount of Khorne that’s appeared this week is no accident, as they were (like Big Waaagh) an army that were perhaps not quite as strong as Soulblight or OBR, but sitting just underneath that tier with the likes of Seraphon. With their competitors eating nerfs and the possibility of KO lists surging back into popular and the heavy shooting lists that Cities of Sigmar can put on the table, players choosing to get the reps in with an army that has great tools for those kinds of matchups makes a lot of sense.

I’m hoping we’re now out of the weird transition bubble of using a mixture of different rules, because between the Ironjawz supplement, the new Dawnbringers book and the Battlescroll there’s a lot of stuff that could potentially influence listbuilding and means it’s hard to really draw some notable conclusions about the metagame as it stands. That said, I would advise sensationalists that worry about the KO AoR to take a deep breath – everything will be okay.

The army’s damage output (if going for a full filth 2*15 Thunderer list) is dependent on succeeding on two coinflips. If those coinflips fail, the army collapses and has given up considerable flexibility and good battle tactics in order to risk those coin flips. It’s a toxic army and should get adjusted to make for more enjoyable play experiences for both players, but I don’t think it will dominate the top tables as it’s simply far too unreliable.