Back to a busy week with four events in the UK and US, including a major Golden Ticket event hosted at Warhammer World in Nottingham. With the unstoppable Nighthaunt and Lumineth meta still raging on we actually have a few surprises this week in terms of winners.

Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament: Golden Ticket Event at Warhammer World

59-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on September 14 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Nicolas Tassone – Slaves to Darkness
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vs.

James Hulance – Nighthaunt
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Thoughts

Well that’s unexpected! Slaves to Darkness have competed reasonably well in the new edition but rarely great. Certainly not going toe to toe with the Nighthaunt Meta on the other side of the table. Rarer still is seeing an Archaon list.

Everything about this screams going in the Nighthaunt’s favor and yet…it doesn’t. It’s a total slaughter for the Slaves to Darkness player who walks away with a perfect score. Quite honestly reader, even I’m baffled at what went down here, but props to bucking the trend!

Result

Slaves to Darkness Victory – 50 – 27

Nicolas Tassone – Slaves to Darkness – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Archaon and Friends

Thoughts

As stated in the showdown, this is a real shocking list to see in the winner’s circuit. Archaon rarely gets to show his face this high up, let alone at the podium. He does have a few benefits in the current meta, with the ability to banish manifestations he makes dealing with the wave of Morbid Conjurations running around a lot easier. He can pick any mark of Chaos which makes him quite adaptable, though Mark of Nurgle is often the smart play, 25 wounds at 3+ save, 5+ Ward and -1 to be wounded generally just isn’t worth it.

The Chosen do Chosen things by charging in to whatever is stuck in Archaon’s grill, and the Fellriders and Raptoryx are highly mobile units that can run to grab objectives. Giving the Sorcerer Lord the mark of Tzeentch is a bit surprising, but has some merit. Spells are one of the few ways to snipe out Heroes who are guarded by units, so a 4+ Ward is a premium choice of protection, when the other marks really want them to get in combat instead.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Lumineth Realm-lords: Hurakan Wind Temple.
• 3rd – Benjamin Savva – Soulblight Gravelords: Zombie spam.
• 4th – James Hulance – Nighthaunt: See Showdown.
• 5th – Joe Jackson – Lumineth Realm-Lords: An actually surprising mix of Teclis and Avalenor, mixing Hurakan and Alarith units.

HIGH DESERT HAMMER FALL AOS GT 2024

43-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Bend, OR, United States on September 14 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Battle for the Pass

Benjamin Hosking – Slaves to Darkness
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vs.

Christopher Hernandez – Gloomspite Gitz
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Thoughts

Both armies really excel here, because if you want to win at Battle for the Pass you either need to be able to stand on both middle objectives and tank the hits, or make a really strong push for your opponent’s backline and rack up points to stay ahead.  Both lists here manage to be far better at the former.

While running lots of Chaos Warriors with no Varanguard or Chosen is unusual, the Slaves to Darkness list gets to really excel in this mission and matchup. Trogg’s primary advantage in combat is their wounding on 2+s, and Mark of Nurgle makes those 3+s, which hurts more than you’d think. They also get to outnumber them on the objective, allowing them to rack up more points earlier. That said the Troggs probably are likely to still do more damage than vice-versa, and they have a 5+ ward to fall back on, so dice are going to matter a lot here.

It ends in a close, tight scoring game with a victory for the warriors of darkness.

Result

Slaves to Darkness Victory – 34-33

Benjamin Hosking – Slaves to Darkness – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Waves of Warriors

Thoughts

A very different take on the usual Slaves to Darkness by really only having one hammer, a reinforced unit of knights. Even then, everything in this list is Nurgle, which means it is a lot to get through. Nurgle forces a -1 to wound on melee attacks meaning if you don’t have a lot of ranged options, or mortal wounds you will struggle to take down this many models.

The strategy is quite simple, stand on objectives with the warriors and tank the hit. The Knights are the only real hammer here and even they’re incredibly resilient if they have to stay in the fight for a while. Pass the DPS check or lose, basically.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Stark Pister – Stormcast Eternals: Krondys and a Lord-Relictor with Vanguard-Raptors and a collection of other troops.
• 3rd – Alexander Gonzalez – Nighthaunt: Nighthaunt good stuff.
• 4th – Christopher Hernandez – Gloomspite Gitz: See Showdown.
• 5th – Jack Geiger – Ogor Mawtribes: Gluttons and Ironguts with caster heroes.
• 6th – Taran Birk – Lumineth Realm-lords: Vanari focused list with Teclis.
• 7th – Michael Bernstein – Seraphon: Kroxigors, Raptadons and Hunters of Huanchi with a Slann and Skink leader.
• 8th – Matt Beasley – Disciples of Tzeentch: Tzaangors of all shapes and sizes.

Broken Realms: CGG edition

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Scotland, United Kingdom on September 14 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Paul Di Duca – Nighthaunt
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vs.

William Cruickshanks – Lumineth Realm-Lords
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Thoughts

Both of these are more or less just the top meta lists, though the Lumineth list does show some interesting variation by allying in Callis and Toll. While there aren’t as many Wind Spirits and Windchargers as we might normally see, there are enough and they are primed to take on the Nighthaunt by bypassing their Ward.

We don’t know the mission but it appears to have been a very close fight as the Nighthaunt only lose by 4 points.

Result

Lumineth Realm-Lords Victory – 40 – 36

William Cruickshanks – Lumineth Realm-Lords – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Hurakan Temple Lumineth

Thoughts

While the general thrust of this list is the usual Lumineth meta of Hurakan Wind Temple, it does do some interesting variations here.

The obvious standout is the inclusion of Callis and Toll. Callis and Toll are great for dealing with enemy Wizards, but are generally just good combatants against most things with their retinue. Importantly, they also get a deep strike, which combined with the 3 units of Riverblades that can teleport, this list has possibly even more mobility than the usual Double Run Hurakan lists (even though it has that, too).

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Paul Di Duca – Nighthaunt: See Showdown.
• 3rd – Hedonites of Slaanesh: Double Keepers and a ton of Blissbarbs.
• 4th – Nate Watson – Disciples of Tzeentch: Lord of Change, Tzaangor Shaman and a lot of Skyfires.
• 5th – Leigh Martin – Nighthaunt: Nighthaunt good stuff, reinforced down the line for some big blocks.
• 6th – Lewis Watson – Ironjawz: Kragnos with Brutez.

Tampere GT 2024

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland on September 14 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Mission – Starstrike

Tomi Hurme – Slaves to Darkness
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vs.

Jussi Salonen – Gloomspite Gitz
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Thoughts

Starstrike is a mission rarely seen in tournament packets, for pretty good reason. The objectives land in random locations which means that merely by being in the right place on the right turn, a single die roll can massively swing the game in your favor.

It’s a mission that mostly favors mobility, which neither army here really has. They did bring some, at least. The Gitz have Squiggs and the Slaves to Darkness have Furies and Knights. If the objectives land in a good spot then the Warriors and Chosen on one side and Troggs on the other can set up shop and wait, otherwise they’ll have to hoof it so it could go either way.

Ultimately it’s a very close match for the Gitz.

Result

Gloomspite Gitz Victory – 40 – 37

Jussi Salonen – Gloomspite Gitz – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Troggs and Squiggs

Thoughts

As we saw earlier in this article, there has been a surge in lists trying to add Squiggs to primarily Trogg lists in order to give them some more variations. Mixing in some Squiggs gives you some flexibility with a unit that can operate as your vanguard and charge in early while the Troggs catch up. If Boingrot Bounderz get the charge they get a ton of attacks in a profile that really isnt that bad, especially at cost. The gobbapalooza buff the Bounderz early on but can hang back and keep buffing the troggs later in the fight.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Anttu – – Slaves to Darkness: Archaon and Chosen, supported by Darkoath Riders and Furies.
• 3rd – Tomi Hurme – Slaves to Darkness: See Showdown.
• 4th – Matti Krans – Daughters of Khaine: Morathi and the Snakes and Harpie sisters.
• 5th – Pietari Jukarainen – Cities of Sigmar: Double runelords with Hammerers, Sorceress with Executioners and Freeguild Marshal with Cavaliers.

Wrap Up

Well that was a bit of a shocker. After a few months of a stale meta could we finally be breaking free of the stranglehold the two top armies have? Slaves to Darkness seem to be finally putting up numbers with some pretty varied lists, but can they sustain it? Are other armies starting to crack their formula and figure out a plan of attack?

Let’s find out next week!

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