No fancy title this week reader, as we’re getting straight to the action. Two events only this week, but one of them is huge at a whopping 166 players and six (!) rounds. That’s not very common in AoS, so any of the lists that finish 5-1 or better will have gone through a gauntlet and have earned my respect!

Quick aside: Thanks go out to RagnarokAngel, who stepped in on my behalf last week to write CI as I was on a small holiday for my wife’s birthday. We both got sick immediately upon arrival at our destination. I love having children who go to nursery aka the central hub for every illness and affliction in the entire town.

Raccoon Rumble 2023: Age of Sigmar

166-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Hof, BY, Germany on November 03 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Dario Grohmann – Big WAAAGH!:
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vs.

Colin Klären – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Befouling Host:
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Thoughts

This ‘big nurgle’ style list isn’t running Plaguebearers, instead opting for the more mobile Beasts of Nurgle that can space themselves out and create difficult attack allocation situations, as well as give greater flexibility for battle tactics and strategy. That said, they can be somewhat slow if for whatever reason they are unable to make run moves. Enter Gobsprakk, whose Choking Mists spell disables run moves in a 6″ aoe, and can really fuck with the added mobility element that Beasts of Nurgle typically allow.

That’s not the only annoying tool that Gobsprakk can bring to the table, as Nasty Hex can disable a ward save for an enemy unit within 12″ of him, which can be absolutely devastating on the Glottkin, whose resilience is entirely tied up in that 5+ ward and is otherwise a fairly easy unit to remove with a fully buffed up 10 man Brute unit.

That said, the Blightkrieg command ability can really fuck with this tidal wave of Brutes, making it difficult for them to make profitable charges because they end up tied up by a single Beast of Nurgle unit, rather than charging to tag many at once and clearing them in one go. Mighty Destroyers can help in the sense that the charge happens in the hero phase rather than the movement phase (and thus before Blightkrieg), but without a Megaboss Dario can only use it once a turn. Once the Sloppity is summoned (which will be quickly, because between Horticulus and Befouling Host Colin can have 7 CP on his first turn potentially) this Nurgle list will also be shutting off pile-ins, making things very difficult.

Result

Big WAAAGH! Victory – 11 – 9

Dario Grohmann – Big WAAAGH! – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Brutes deathstars

Thoughts

As mentioned in previous CI’s over the last month or so, Brutes are ridiculously efficient in BW for their cost at 140, and stacking this efficiency up to take 30 of them for only 840 points still gives you so much leftover to invest in the very potent heroes in the BW roster like the Wurgogg, Gobsprakk and a Weirdnob to provide teleports.

In a list that is otherwise a little slow, two units of Gore Gruntas (another efficient hammer at 170) help mitigate this, with 10 Hobgrots to use as a screen/backfield camper. Well done to Dario for the 6-0 and taking out the event in dominant fashion.

Mathew Davies – Gloomspite Gitz – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

King’s Gitz trades

Thoughts

As the archetype suggest, Mathmallow’s list is all about making profitable trades in value and grinding out the opponent. Boingrot Bounderz with extra Rend from the Gobbapalooza and extra attacks from the Squig Boss are more than capable of killing pretty much all but the absolute toughest units in the game.

The Stabbas are a premiere screen unit, providing an efficient 20 wounds for only 120 points with a 4+ save against shooting and a -1 to hit bubble in combat. Enhancing their function yet further is the addition of Fanatics, who are a nightmare for your opponent to deal with as they can pop out in the enemy charge phase from one of the Stabba units to clog up charge lanes, hide inside until the Stabba unit is destroyed to pop out and unleash a deadly counter attack (potentially even holding onto an objective if only a monster is contesting it), or being used aggressively to go on suicide missions against fragile support pieces or absorb Unleash Hell from a particularly potent shooting unit. They are very versatile, and give Matt some compelling tactical options.

The tradeoff is that there’s not as much raw efficiency here as there would be if Matt had invested in Squig Herd, but Stabbas make better screens and this type of unit has only gotten more important as the edition wears on. This list went 6-0 as well and only narrowly missed out on the 1st place finish. Well done Matt!

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd (5-1-0) – Daniel Pommer – Befouling Host: A large 30 block of Plaguebearers, a trio of Daemons (GUO, Sloppity, Herald of Nurgle) and then the rest of the list is stuffed with Beasts of Nurgle with a cheeky Nurgling unit and Plague drone unit for BT
• 4th (5-0-1) – Timo Wiebel – Emerald Host: A surprising collection here, with the usual suspects of Olynder, a Cruciator, a Guardian of Souls etc joined by a mix of battleline, then 3 (!) units of Craventhrone Guard and 2 (!) Black Coaches
• 5th (5-0-1) – Colin Klären – Befouling Host: See showdown
• 6th (5-0-1) – Jan Tomeček – Bloodtoofs: A pig skin of a more deviant persuasion, with 3 MSU grunta units, a Cabbage and a couple of warchanters… then the madness begins with a Rabble-Rowza, 2 Maw-grunta Gougers and then 6 Ragerz to round it out. Jan lost his round 1 to Daniel Pommer (3rd) and then went on a heater!
• 7th (5-0-1) – Nikolas Berg – Oakenbrow: 4 Treelords, a Treelord Ancient and a Durthu for near maximum tree efficiency. The Lady of Vines helps tree the trees upright and a cheeky 5 tree Tree-Revenant squad to tree tree battle tactics tree, well tree Nikolas
• 8th (5-0-1) – Johannes Stuhler – Big Waaagh!: A more ‘classic’ style BW list with the usual Gobsprakk/2 Chanter/Wurgogg/Weirdnob, 3 MSU Brute Squads for battleline, 20 Stabbas to screen and 12 Gore-gruntas

Slambo GT

62-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in San Antonio, TX, US on November 03 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Randal Brasher – Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist:
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vs.

Kel Pigg – Nighthaunt: The Quicksilver Dead:
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Thoughts

The Ogors here are all about charging, with the Tyrants all selecting Brawlerguts combined with Meatfist and Kragnos for 3d6 charges, then rolling a number of dice equal to the charge roll and doing a mortal wound on 3s… oof.

Going up against them is Nighthaunt, who are welcomed back to Competitive Innovations with a smile after some time in the shadows waiting for buffs. Kel’s Harridans ignore ward saves thanks to Quicksilver Dead, but this is largely irrelevant here as the Ogors only have a ward on Kragnos himself.

Randal’s Ogors ultimately match up a little poorly here, as he can’t easily deal with the Cruciator (which reduces the melee damage these Nighthaunt take by 1 which is devastating for Ogors), his rend is irrelevant and Kel has enough MSU units that he can screen himself such that the first wave absorb the charges, then the second wave obliterate those Tyrants and Kragnos once they make it in.

Result

Nighthaunt: The Quicksilver Dead Victory – 25 – 19

Kel Pigg – Nighthaunt: The Quicksilver Dead – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

MSU Spooks

Thoughts

Really interesting stuff here, as Awlrach and the Harrow give the army a mobile element to unlock battle tactic and strategic options, while the tidal wave of MSU Dreadscythes act as mediocre hammers that nevertheless can overwhelm by stacking Wave of Terror debuffs and ‘ganging up’ on larger more threatening prey.

The list’s greatest strength is it’s redundancy, as the Heroes can castle up and be protected by the Spirit Hosts, while the 10 man squads can screen and space such that Kel only loses a little bit in melee at a time, prepared for a counterattack. The list might struggle against aoe spell damage armies like Seraphon or heavy shooting armies, but Lady Olynder, the Torment & the GoS help against shooting attrition and overall I’m very impressed with how the list is constructed. Might we be seeing the dawn of NH lists not overly reliant on Bladeghiests and charge mortals?

Dillon Corcoran – Mortis Praetorians – 2nd Place (5-0)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Counter charges Cavalry

Thoughts

An interesting list here I must say, as Dillon has skipped the heavy infantry entirely and focuses on control through movement. The Diversionary Tactics Kavalos reduces enemy charges by 3 within 12″ of him, can have up a 4+ ward between the Lode of Saturation and the OBR generic command ability, and any of these units can charge thanks to Mortis Praetorians. The result is an army that can do a lot with very little, as the army can effectively be mobile and aggressive in Dillon’s opponents turn to get extra value from the Morghast and/or the Kavalos.

The Kavalos is interesting too in that it’s unique command ability Endless Duty gives a unit +1 attacks in melee until your next Hero phase, which can be very effective on the Archai. Speaking of the Archai, the MP counter-charge on these guys is mean, as if they charge with an 8+ they get the strike-first effect until the end of the turn… which is scary when Dillon’s opponent must endure their activation BEFORE he can even activate with his first unit. As I said, the army has play in both players turns, which goes a long way in making this small elite army sing.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 all went 4-1 and were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Zach Kennedy – Big Waaagh!: Standard BW hero shell with a Wardokk for cheeky access to Gorkamorka’s War Cry without giving up the Wurgogg Stare to use it, then 20 Brutes, 9 Pigs and 3 Ragers
• 4th – Robbie “Bear” Steinbring – Null Myriad: No Katakros here, instead leaning on Arkhan for ‘over the top’ power, using the points saved on a Liege-Kavalos and 8 Morghast Archai
• 5th – Randal Brasher – Meatfist: See showdown
• 6th – Andrew Carlson – Legion of Blood: 50 Skeletons, 20 GG, then 2 Necro, 1 VL, a Vengorian Lord (ethereal) & Neferata
• 7th – Adam Burke – Kastelai Dynasty: 32 Askurgan Trueblades headline this aggressive vampire-heavy list that runs Prince Vhordrai & a Vengorian Lord – Fist of Nagash and Bladelord means any buffs gained from killing stuff can apply to potentially up to 3 Vampire units!
• 8th – Chris Long – King Brodd’s Stomp: ending the top 8 with not a bang but a stomp, Chris has Brodd, 2 Gatebreakers and a Beast-smasher

Wrap Up

There was actually a few team events too over the past weekend, perhaps most notable the AoS 6 Nations event held in Ireland. If I get some free time this week I may write something up on it, but no promises. Really cool to see such a healthy mix of stuff this week, with perhaps the most eyebrow raising thing being how Big Waaagh has suddenly hit the mainstream despite it’s taxing hobby requirements (collecting a bunch of models from 3 different factions). Their non-interactive battle tactics and deep roster of useful toolbox pieces have made them a force, with a sizable player base now ensuring that soon they will likely get nerfed!