Three events to cover this week, let’s skip the preamble and dive right in shall we? I have reveals from Atlanta this weekend to daydream and wishlist for. Kruleboyz wave two!? Nah probably not.

Gits go to War(fare) 2023

50-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Farnborough England, GB on November 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Stats & Ladders.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Lines of Communication

Phil Marshall – King’s Gitz: 
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Max Soule – Knights of the Empty Throne:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Lines of Communication demands that both players pin the center, and the advantage in many ways goes to the player that can pin the opponent into their own deployment or otherwise disrupt them from ‘unpacking’ their army into the center.

Both armies are very fast and ideally want to live in their opponent’s deployment which makes this one a little interesting. Max can have run and charge on the Slaanesh Chosen (if he runs up the CSL to keep up with them), and they’ll have +1 attacks on the charge for a nasty hammer/anvil unit. Then there is of course the tidal wave of Varanguard, who are both fast and get innate run and charge from KOTET’s battle trait (not to mention with Daemonic Speed one could even charge 3d6″). Be’lakor’s Dark Master ability typically means this 1 drop list wants to take first, then shut down their opponent’s best unit and then in the worst case scenario where they get doubled said unit is still affected and neutered for a total two turns.

Going up against this nasty wall of 3+ armour saves (and ward save against mortals for the VG) is Big Phil’s squigs, which has taken a rather interesting detour from what is typical. No Squig boss and the choice of King’s Gitz as the subfaction means that the 2 huge Boingrot units are not dealing quite as much damage as their ceiling could potentially be… but Phil isn’t worried nearly so much about the damage here. They want to be mobile anvils, with one unit receiving a 5+ ward (from the Snufflers) and ideally mystic shield too, then hurtling up into the Varanguard and requiring a hellish amount of attention to kill. How bad is it? Well if the VG haven’t charged that turn (and assuming they have Daemonic Power so +1 to hit and wound) they’ll still only do about 11 or so damage to a unit of Bounders with All out Defence and the 5+ ward, only 8 if Mystic Shield is up too.

But what if Max takes first turn and charges in and pins Phil? Well Stabbas/Fanatics combo can certainly help there – the Fanatics can be released at the beginning of Max’s charge phase and spread out to essentially act as a barrier to stop the VG from getting to the front lines and giving Phil enough breathing room to counter attack (or teleport Squigs behind to get to the weaker stuff behind. This is all to say that Max’s list is fantastic against a lot of stuff but this is a real rough matchup as Phil has plenty going on here to ensure the VG don’t get that juicy alpha charge they so desperately need to be effective.

Result

Phil Marshall Victory – 28-8

Phil Marshall – King’s Gitz – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Tanky Grindy Squigs

Thoughts

As you might expect from my comments above, the strength of this list is in maximising the value of recycling units through the Loon Shrine and pairing that with defensive buffs to require each unit the opponent fights takes a lot of effort to kill (and likely loses a lot in the process). The combination of Clammy Hand and King’s Gitz means that Phil can use the shrine twice at the end of each of his turns, and reroll the dice to see if it works. This makes bringing back at least one unit very consistent, and with two units of 15 Bounders, bringing back 8 is still a significant hammer that’s easily over 200 points in value and can likely help put the game away assuming Phil hasn’t completely fluffed it in the early game.

When the Gitz book first came out, tournament lists thrived on damage output and overwhelming the opponent with models. With SIGNIFICANT price hikes, that gameplan is not as consistent as it once was, and this approach goes a long way to addressing that by winning the game a different way – controlling space, choking your opponent’s resources and winning on battle tactics.

Want a clearer sign of its effectiveness? Phil scored 28 points in all five of his rounds (that’s a maximum score in most battleplans for context), and none of his opponent’s even reached double digits for their score. Their scores were 8, 6, 8, 2, 8. Watch out Warhammer World Championships and Atlanta, Phil is coming for you!

Steve Curtis – Legion of Night – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Stand on objectives, score battle tactics, profit

Thoughts

What is more irritating than 60 Zombies on an objective? 60 Zombies that count as two on an objective (Unbending Will) and thus are almost impossible to wrest objective control away from without wiping out the unit entirely.

Steve’s true hammers are the heroes, that will be expected to do the heavy lifting. Luckily, thanks to counter charges from the Legion of Night, those Zombies (or the Wolves/Bats) can tag and otherwise obstruct the threats to the Vengorian Lord and VLoZD and ensure that they only fight on fronts they know they’ll win. Cunning and devious and utterly devastating.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Bryn Roberts – Breaker Tribe: Triple Gatebreaker + Gitz Regiment of Renown for access to magical dominance and easier to score Surround & Destroy etc
• 4th – Christian Salvage – Hammers of Sigmar: A surprisingly balanced list, with a mix of Longstrikes, Annihilators (both flavours), Vindictors and the glue of a Lord-Imperatant, Knight-Relictor and Knight-Incantor to help all these elements sing
• 5th – Brent Evans – Barak Urbaz: A 15 Thunderer Ironclad list that brings Gotrek for a sticky melee element
• 6th – Max Soule – Knights of the Empty Throne: See showdown
• 7th – Matthew Lyons – Mortis Praetorians: Arkhan/Kata/Mortisan with 6 Immortis, then MSU Deathriders, Mortek & Stalkers
• 8th – Conor Gardner – Stomper Tribe: Gatebreaker/Warstomper/Kraken-Eater with 2 Mancrushers and a cheeky Kruleboyz regiment of renown make this list surprisingly multiple

2d6 Carnage

44-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Oslo, NO on November 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Fountains of Frost

Kuba Kostrubiec – Skullfiend Tribe:

Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Tomasz Mucha – Big Waaagh:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

It’s a rather bizarre mortal heavy Khorne list vs a rather more typical flavour of the month Big Waaagh list, with Tomasz capable of putting out appalling levels of damage from all those Brutes paired with the Gore-gruntas.

The problem however is that there are just so many Bloodreaver screens that getting them into the meaningful stuff may be difficult, and to kill those Bloodreavers is to play into the Khorne summoning gameplan (in fact, Kuba’s grand strategy depends on him summoning on every turn from battle round two onwards).

The final score is a close one, and I think this is a testament to how much of a nightmare a BW list is to deal with even in unfavourable conditions. Gobsprakk might not be at his best here when there’s no meaningful spellcasting to shut down, but access to the incredible powerful Choking Mists spell (6″ aoe bubble of -1 to melee attack profiles and affected units can’t run) give the birb toting Orruk a ton of play in this matchup.

Result

Skullfiend Tribe Victory – 11 – 9

Kuba Kostrubiec – Blades of Khorne: Skullfiend Tribe – 1st Place

The List

See showdown

Archetype

MSU bodies & Tzeentch!?

Thoughts

What a dark time this is for Khorne players. First they must see competitive lists flourish while taking a *audibly gags* Wizard in Be’lakor… but now here we have a 5-0 list that takes the Tzeentch (!?) Regiment of Renown, which I now sadly have to try and explain.

The Horrors are not the terrors you might expect, as they do not split into blues/brims, instead comboing with the unique mechanic of the Regiment. At the beginning of battle the Magister auto summons one of the three Tzeentch endless spells (which cannot be removed in the first battle round). Once per turn when a Horror is killed wholly within 12″ of the Magister, the endless spell that’s currently on the battlefield can be removed and one of the other two endless spells autocast and put into play which cannot be unbound. If it was the Sigil it immediately triggers it’s damage & potential Spawn summoning ability, if it was the Tome you can immediately cast the associated spell it unlocks, and if it was the pair of bird heads then the damage ability triggers immediately.

It’s a really strange and fragile gimmick that nevertheless is something that is quite potent (speaking from experience, I’ve played against it and was surprised at how quickly the damage can stack up when said Horrors charge into a screen and intentionally get themselves damage). In this Khorne list it unlocks the Magical Dominance battle tactic primarily and just creates a nuisance of summoned Chaos Spawn to get in the way.

Beyond that, Skullfiend Tribe means the mortals in this list get the strike-first effect if they charge on an 8 or more, making that brick of Skullreapers (and even the Bloodreavers en masse) a devastating hammer in the right situation.

Lennart “Lillen” Svensson – Celestial Warbringers – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Shoot the shit with my pals, 7 foot tall macho men

Thoughts

4 Knight-Judicators and a Celestant-Prime means one thing here – aoe mortal wounds is the plan. The former each have a once per battle 30″ range ability to blow up said point on the battlefield, rolling a dice for each enemy unit within 6″ of that point and doing d3 mortal wounds on a 4+. The latter pick a point each turn within 24″ of Prime-time and does d3 mortal wounds to each enemy unit within 3″.

Adding to the madness here is that each Judicator comes with a free unit of two Gryph Hounds to essentially just run around and clog up space and block off charge lanes. Want more? Well how bout a fat ass dragon dropping out of the skies and doing d3 mortal wounds to each enemy unit within 10″ of the unit when it’s set up (on a 4+ for each unit). Sensing a theme? It’s equipped with a Luckstone to guarantee a 12″ charge to just get in the way somewhere, and while the Tempest Axe is a pathetic weapon to kill stuff with, it also limits pile ins within 3″ of the templar to just 1″.

Finally, Sevireth adds just a little smidge of extra shooting damage and random chip mortals as it bounces around the battlefield like a puppy that’s been riled up by a small child.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Tomasz Mucha – Big Waaagh!: See showdown
• 4th – Lasse Kalberg – Barak-Urbaz: Thunderers, Ironclad, Gotrek & Support Pieces
• 5th – Thomas Berg – Hagg Nar: Morathi and the Melee Snakes with their new supporting act – Treebeard the Treelord to play his latest hit song “You Strike-last!”
• 6th – Stian Engebretsen – Knights of the Empty Throne: Be’lakor, a total of 12 Varanguard, a CSL (plus Unmade & MSU Chaos Knights) with a Mindstealer for access to a Strike-last effect
• 7th – Harald Sannum – Reapers of Vengeance: Double Bloodthirster + Skarbrand, with a bunch of MSU Khorne units to die and generate blood tithe and the Godsworn Hunt warband for a cheap spellcaster for Magical Dominance, a decent debuff spell and two units to have die and generate blood tithe

Farmhammer Brewdog

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament at the home of Brewdog in Ellon, Scotland on November 11 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Stats & Ladders.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

John B – Fangs of Sotek:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Stu West – Legion of Blood:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Flesh eating cannibals? In *my* Legion of Blood? It’s more likely than you think. The Archregent can cheekily summon on either 20 Ghouls, a Courtier hero or 3 ‘Knights’ (horrors/flayers). Nice bit of toolbox fuckery in this otherwise fairly standard Summonable list that wants to control the middle with a nightmare brick of Skeletons and beat you up with the Vampire Lord.

That said, this rather ‘fair’ list that wants to just run up and punch you has it’s work cut out against a list capable of vomiting a ton of screens onto the board as it generates 10+ summoning points every turn… not to mention that Suffocating Gravetide will absolutely mulch the Skeletons when combined with Kroak.

Bad matchup between two great lists that nevertheless came right down to the wire due to the sheer grindy resilience of this Soulblight list that packs a lot of mobility between the deep striking Zombie Dragon, the FEC element and the Wight King + Black Knights giving the army the ability to lift screens in the charge phase from charge mortals.

Result

Fangs of Sotek Victory – 27-26

John B – Fangs of Sotek – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Spells & Summoning

Thoughts

We’ve seen this archetype a lot over the past few months, so I’ll just re-iterate that this is a very potent list that typically falls over due to some poor matchups (1 drop lists that are capable of giving applying a ton of early pressure or can setup an early double, Null Myriad OBR, Khorne) but can utterly dominate against some of the more traditional gameplan armies that play ‘fair’ (though I do start to wonder if there really is ‘fair’ in this game at this point).

So what to look at today? How about Raptadon Chargers, who cost 150 and can put out 16 damage 2 attacks and 15 damage 1 attacks at rend 1 in ideal situations. Give it the Serpent Staff buff from the Starpriest and they’ll even contribute mortal wounds on 6s to wound in addition. It’s a sneakily potent hammer unit that doesn’t impress on initial glance, but on the table when it’s supported by a very high cast Hoarfrost it can really punch above it’s weight.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Stu West – Legion of Blood: See showdown
• 3rd – Phil McGuinness – Droning Guard: Plague Drone spam! It’s like fly spam but combos well with Sloppity Bilepiper to make them even more annoying! LoA with Overpowering Strench & the 4+ ward helm also make an appearance, plus Orghotts
• 4th – Cara Newby – King Brodd’s Stomp: Brodd, Warstomper plus two Gatebreakers
• 5th – David Jack – Barak Nar: 2 reinforced Arkanaut Company units to hold the center, with 15 Thunderers and an Ironclad to blow up threats to it, with 3 Riggers, a Gunhauler and minimal support heroes to round the list out
• 6th – Alasdair R – Barak-Urbaz: Basically the same list as David’s, but 10 less Arkanauts, 3 more riggers and a different subfaction and enhancements

Wrap Up

Got a big event coming up this weekend in War in the Heartlands for me personally to look forward to, plus the World Championships of Warhammer in Atlanta, where some of the world’s most successful players in the last twelve months battle it out – good luck to any and all readers who are participating. Are you playing in a tournament this weekend? Let me know in the comments, I love to read about what people are running and their hopes/expectations for the event.