This is it folks, the final week before LVO and the end of the 2023 ITC Season. Since many need the practice, we got 2 smaller events this week. One is the finals of Goonhammer’s very own UTC, and a two day event out in Southern California.

Unified Tournament Circuit AOS Finals

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Westminster, MD, US on January 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Geomantic Pulse

Kaleb Walters – Guild of Summoners:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Nicholas Walters – Bloodtoofs:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The Walters brothers got to finish up the finals of the first year of the UTC, running their signature armies of Tzeentch and Ironjawz. Ironjaws are as always, very straight forward: Buff them pigs then charge the opponent, if you manage to kill most of the enemy you probably won, if you didn’t…they probably will get you on the counter. Tzeentch is fragile but Kaleb has a lot of screens and the Krondspine to help slow down an Orruk charge.

In the end it’s hard fought, but Tzeentch manages to pull ahead, utilizing their magic to seal the deal.

Result

Guild of Summoners Victory – 16 – 4

Kaleb Walters – Guild of Summoners – 1st Place

The List.

See Showdown

Archetype

Magister and Krondspine with Tzeentch Good Stuff

Thoughts

Ever since Rupture was changed to no longer affect your own, we have seen a steady drop in popularity but Kaleb continues to use it to great effect. When used properly, especially in Tzeentch it can be an incredibly powerful race to sacrifice your Magister in time to be able to eat their own endless spells. Thanks to Fate Dice it’s quite possible to deliberately sabotage your own Endless Blizzard and end his life prematurely.

Rounding it out is another Magister on Hoarfrost/Blizzard duty (along with his excellent warscroll spell to create spawn to slow down the enemy), a Ogroid Thaumaturge to cast the excellent Mortal spells of Glimpse the Future and Arcane Suggestion and of course a Lord of Change to round it out, don’t leave home without it.

The list is then mostly comprised of chaff to keep a solid buffer between the enemy and you. And they certainly do the job, especially Acolytes which can generate more summoning points and even do some decent damage at range before they get punted off the board.

The Best of the Rest

• 2nd – Nicholas Walters – Ironjawz (Bloodtoofs): See showdown.
• 3rd – Bill Hennessey – Soulblight Gravelords (Vyrkos Dynasty): Zombie Spam
• 4th – Cory Wiggins – Ogor Mawtribes (Boulderhead): Huskards on Stonehorn and Thundertusk leading more Stonehorn.
• 5th – Matthew Obringer – Skaven: A lot of Grey Seers leading 30 Stormvermin, Rat Ogors and  a Hellpit Abomination.
• 6th – Parker Smith – Sons of Behemat (King Brodd’s Stomp): Brodd, 2 Warstompers and a Gatebreaker.

Special Note for this one! Although Corry is listed as 6th place in BCP with a 3-2 record, Corey and Bill tied on their last game, leaving no clear third place and a special tiebreaker was used. Both agreed to split the 3rd place pot.

Small Town Throwdown: Happy NOOG Year!

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cypress, CA, US on January 13 2024. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Limited Resources

Gregory Brewer – Gloomspite Gitz:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Shane Lambert – Clan Pestilens:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The Skaven have had a bit of a renaissance with the debut of the new Warband. The new Warband’s ability to deny objectives to opponents couples very well with their synergy to Clan Pestilens units, so with enough Censer Bearers and Clan Rats locking down objectives becomes very hard.

This makes it particularly tough for blunt instrument lists like a Troggoth focused Gitz lists. While they pack some excellent magical prowess, they really need their Troggs to get into the opponent’s key pieces to smash face and the Skaven will not make that job easy with that much chaff to weed through.

Result

Clan Pestilens Victory – 520 – 20

Shane Lambert – Skaventide – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Clan Pestilens

Thoughts

As stated above the Clan Pestilens lists have exploded with the new Underworlds Warband, and they synergize naturally into a Pestilens centered list. The buffs make them very difficult to hit, while simultaneously dealing a lot of Mortal Wounds to the enemy. Rounding it off is the Hellpit Abomination and Verminlord Warbringer to bring the hammer down while Grey Seers hang back and cast Death Frenzy to make those Censer Bearers even scarier, and Skitterleap to ping pong the Clan rats around the table to open objectives.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd – Eugene Averin – Gloomspite Gitz (King’s Gitz): A collection of seemingly every damn model in the book.
• 3rd – Gregory Brewer – Gloomspite Gitz (King’s Gitz): See Showdown
• 4th – Ian McAlesse – Kharadron Overlords (Barak Zon): KO Good Stuff
• 5th – Trish Celefaze – Hedonites of Slaanesh (Godseekers): Glutos with a sampler platter of different Slaanesh Units.

Wrap Up

Next weeks the big one, the event we’ve all been looking forward to in Age of Sigmar competitive gaming: The Las Vegas Open. I’ll be there in the big GT so if any of you are there feel free to pop by and say hi. See you next week!

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