Competitive Innovations in the Mortal Realms, June 11-17 2024: They Blew Up the Chicken Man

As the edition marches to a close there’s still a few major GTs to look at. Atlantic City Open is on its fourth year and has the timing to come in right at the end of an edition, so we get to see some players taking their one last run with their favorite armies or weird lists they didn’t get to try before.

ACO Age of Sigmar Championships 2024

55-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey, US on June 15 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Every Step is Forward

Mike Mercurio – Ogor Mawtribes:
Army List - Click to Expand


Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Mawtribe: Boulderhead
– Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Huskard on Stonehorn (400)*
– General
– Blood Vulture
– Command Trait: Voice of the Avalanche
– Artefact: The Seat of Alvagr
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Huskard on Thundertusk (330)
– Blood Vulture
– Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide
– Prayer: Keening Gale
– Nullstone Adornment: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon

Battleline
Stonehorn Beastriders (330)*
– Weapon: Blood Vulture
Stonehorn Beastriders (330)*
– Weapon: Blood Vulture
Stonehorn Beastriders (330)*
– Weapon: Blood Vulture
Thundertusk Beastriders (260)*
– Weapon: Blood Vulture

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 84
Drops: 2

vs.

Scott Dielman – Seraphon:
Army List - Click to Expand


Army Faction: Seraphon
– Army Type: Starborne
– Army Subfaction: Fangs of Sotek
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER

1 x Skink Starseer (160)*
– Spells: cosmic crush, Speed of Huanchi

1 x Slann Starmaster (310)*
– General
– Command Traits: Arcane Might
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Comet’s Call

1 x Lord Kroak (450)**

1 x Pontifex Zenestra (180)**

1 x Terradon Chief (90)**
– Artefacts: Arcane Tome

1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)***

BATTLELINE

10 x Skinks (90)**
– Skink Alpha
– Boltspitter
– Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler

10 x Skinks (90)**
– Skink Alpha
– Boltspitter
– Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler

10 x Saurus Guard (150)***
– War-drummer
– Icon Bearer
– Saurus Guard Alpha

ENDLESS SPELL

1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (50)

1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)

1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

TERRAIN

1 x Starborne Realmshaper Engine (0)

CORE BATTALIONS:

*Andtorian Acolytes

**Warlord

***Wizard-finders of Andtor

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App

Thoughts

While under most circumstances the Seraphon list would certainly hold the advantage over Ogors this is one of those situations where the stars align perfectly in favor of the Ogor player. Every Step is Forward really favors charging armies, since they get +1 to control on objectives an army that wants an early alpha strike is going to eat well here.

While the Beastclaw player lacks a meaningful way to shut down magic, the abundance of Stonehorns means they don’t really need to. They can try as long as Heroic Willpower and Nullstone artefact can keep them going but even if it doesn’t most everything has a 5+ ward to tank the hits and they can take a fair amount of damage without affecting their ability to capture the points.

Result

Ogor Mawtribes Victory – 30 – 11

Mike Mercurio – Ogor Mawtribes – 1st Place

Frostlord on Stonehorn from Games Workshop. An ogre riding atop a mighty moss green, ivory horned beast.

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Stonehorn and more stonehorns

Thoughts

So this goes off script a bit, but there’s a method to the madness. Lack of a Frostlord is generally seen as unwise so there’s a bit to analyze here. Frostlord on Stonehorn give +1 to charge and have a better save so they play into the army well, but they’re also expensive and their ranged weapon is a lot worse.

Each Huskard (and the Stonehorn riders) is a Blood Vulture, which is an unlimited range mortal wound on a 2+ to anything they can see. If you count them up that’s 6, which is a pretty consistent way to snipe your average foot hero without even moving up if they’re left where they can be seen. After the Surgical strike is completed, they can do the Beastclaw thing of charging in and hopefully spike hard on the charge. If they don’t and get stuck in, a 5+ Ward on almost everything in the army means they can slug it out for a while against most armies.

The Best of the Rest

There were 2 players on 4-0-1 Records and 7 on 4-1 records. They were:

  • 2nd – Emma Mangels – Daughters of Khaine (Khailebron): Morathi and the Bowsnakes.
  • 3rd – Anthony Trentanelli – Sons of Behemat (Stomper Tribe): Kragnos, Warstomper and Braggit’s Bottle-Snatchaz Regiment of Renown.
  • 4th – Scott Dielman – Seraphon (Fangs of Sotek): See Showdown.
  • 5th – Chai Tzola – Blades of Khorne (Skullfiend Tribe): One Bloodthirster with the usual suite of heroes, Skullreapers, Wrathmongers and allied Cocaktrice and Furies.
  • 6th – Bartosz Milewski – Seraphon (Fangs of Sotek): Double Slann and good stuff.
  • 7th – Joss Wheeler – Stormcast Eternals (Knights Excelsior): Knight-Vexilor and Annihilator skew with Krondys.
  • 8th – Boris Poletaev – Nighthaunt (The Scarlet Doom): Bladegheist Revenant spam.
  • 9th – Ezekiel Lytle – Slaves to Darkness (Host of the Everchosen): Slaves to darkness good stuff.
  • 10th – Brian Sayman – Ironjawz (Bloodtoofs): Ironjawz Gore Grunta focus, with allied Skragrott.

Wrap Up

Another slower week in the bag. This upcoming weekend is the last one before preorders for 4th so things are gonna get quiet for a bit before they heat up!

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