This week is drunk as fuck, with three events that have a mix of surprising armies finding success, proven armies making unusual and surprising list construction choices, and in general serving as a reminder that sometimes players just embrace madness and have fun. I love it, let’s dive in.

AoS Champs At The 2023 Michigan GT

90-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lansing, MI, US on October 07 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Fountains of Frost

Devin Courtman – Legion of Night:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Gabriel Cobaugh – Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

It’s very cool to see a proper ‘dads on tour’ style Gutbusters themed army make it to a showdown, and it’s been something GW has clearly been wanting to see for a while, as the archetype has seen healthy points drops for what feels like a year at this point. For those unaware, Meatfist makes the charge mortals ability from Gutbusters units more potent, and the pair of Tyrants in this list take Brawlerguts as their Big Name in order to further enhance it. A Gorger is here for battle tactic purposes (making things like Surround & Destroy easier), and Gnoblars just help screen for the army.

On the other side, we have a very balanced (in terms of unit composition) Legion of Night list that doesn’t want to get drawn into the objective game by relying heavily on efficient battleline. Instead, the list wants to be aggressive with a number of potent aggressive threats like the Grave Guard, as well as utility hammers that can help out in certain matchups. The Trueblades can bestow strikes-last on a 3+ when they charge, which you can trigger on your opponent’s turn using LoN’s subfaction trait and is a particularly nasty combo, and the Sons of Velmorn can shut down pile-ins to blunt a large units ability to get all its attacks in.

On the face of it, I favour the Soulblight list here, as it’s got the punch to lift the Glutton units and can grind out a protracted engagement to nullify the charge mortals of all these Gutbuster units. That said, Gabriel’s Ogor army won, so what happened? I’m not certain, but I expect a big part of this may have been that Gabe has the advantage when it comes to drops, and I could see a double turn from this Ogor list being able to blow a lot of the chess pieces Devin has off the board. Maybe Mannfred got lifted early on from a combination of charge mortals and the Frost Lord going to work… Any number of things can happen, and it’s a reminder that the strongest list on paper doesn’t equate to a win. Player skill, battleplan, strategy and sometimes the variance of the dice can influence things.

Result

Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist Victory – 28 – 22

Gabriel Cobaugh – Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dads on Tour

Thoughts

This army’s heavy use of Gluttons give the list a pretty efficient core, which is randomly quite effective against shooting (between Billowing Ash from the Firebelly providing -1 to hit, and -1 to wound the Gluttons in shooting thanks to their banners), which can make good use of Hoarfrost. With all this, there’s enough left to afford a Frost Lord on Stonehorn, a unit that remains one that many armies can struggle to deal with.

It’s an honest army, with very little tricksy bullshit going on (with the FLOSH perhaps being the closest thing thanks to its ability to tokyo drift with its monstrous rampage). This might put certain players off, but one of the things oft overlooked in list design is how it will play on the table. Gabriel has a solid jack-of-all-trades list that has good movement, battle tactic access and plenty of damage, that requires a lot less tracking of buffs and mental load than some other armies… which means that the army can focus on the fundamentals of good movement and planning. Little things add up over the course of a 5 round tournament, and it always helps that Gabriel has access to a boat load of mortal wounds, something which acts as a good ‘break glass in case of emergency’ solution.

Keegan Graves – Skaven – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Hammers and tricksy bullshit

Thoughts

This list is rather familiar, and something quite similar cropped up  a few weeks ago here (search Kieren). Keegan has refined the list for his own personal preferences however, and the result is something pretty interesting. For those unfamiliar, the list wants to fish for good charge rolls using Always Three Clawsteps Ahead and then potentially use that roll to help PCB that deep strike in with the Warp-Grinder make a charge immediately.

The list goes a little lighter on bodies than the last version, investing those points in a Hell Pit Abomination. It’s a fairly efficient monster that is great against hordes, and when it dies has a 1/3 chance of standing back up with d6 wounds remaining – nothing amazing but gives the list a smidge more durability.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Raymond Lane – Drowned Men: Glottkin + Pusgoyles, with 20 Plaguebearers to give the army access to Sloppity shenanigans in relevant matchups
• 4th – Joseph Urban – Scarlet Doom: Bladegheist spam that goes a bit off the beaten path with a Black Coach (cool points aplenty) and Olynder to give these 5 MSU Revenant units some more staying power against incidental damage
• 5th – Chris Thiel – Mor’phann: Surprising me here, Chris has not gone for shark spam and is leveraging the price drops on the Namarti for a very fun looking infantry list that justifies the inclusion of a Thrallmaster!
• 6th – Rick Replogle – Emerald Host: Another nighthaunt list!? We’re getting spoiled. MSU mix of Spirit Hosts, Hexwraiths and Grimghasts, relying on Olynder and other heroes plus Terminexus and Purple Sun (cast using Midnight Tome) for help with damage
• 7th – Devin Courtman – Legion of Night: See showdown
• 8th – Jon Anderson – Alumnia: An interesting list concept I’ve not seen before, using a total of 40 Wardens that count as 2 on objectives to help with primary scoring, with Avalenor, Lyrior and Eltharion providing herohammer damage

END TIMES GRAND TOURNAMENT 2023

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Lovčičky, Jihomoravský kraj, Česko on October 07 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. Weirdly enough this tournament had a ton of draws, meaning there was no 5-0 finishing player.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Pavel Šebesta – Grinnin’ Blades:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

László Gergely – Jaws of Mork:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Pavel has a sort of ‘greatest hits’ (if there is such a thing) of Kruleboyz units, focusing on the armies strengths – ranged damage, Gobsprakk and the efficiency of the Sludgeraker. It’s an incredibly high damage output army that has a great matchup against shooting reliant armies (less useful in this showdown) but can struggle with board control as the army doesn’t have great anvils and it’s foot troops are lacklustre.

This is bad news, as László excels at board control with it’s huge amount of bodies between the Squigs and the Moonclan gits. He has a fairly ‘standard’ Squig focused list that can recycle and grind out long melee engagements.

And yet Pavel absolutely *crushed* it, so we need to zoom out a little bit and work out what the path to victory is for the Kruleboyz lads. Gits armies can struggle with battleshock, and 12 Boltboyz (with Poison buffs from a Shaman and a Sludgeraker) can split shots and do a lot of damage to 3-4 different units and create a chain of battleshock tests that can wear the army down without needing to get involved in melee. We must assume that the Gutrippaz and Hobgrots were offered up as speedbumps, and savvy use of Choking Mists (a ludicrously powerful spell that inflicts -1 attack and can’t run in a 6″ aoe bubble) plus the Kruleboyz Waaagh on a pivotal turn to try and lift the rather squishy Gits units before they can fight back makes sense as possible lines to victory. Are Kruleboyz legit?

Result

Grinnin’ Blades Victory – 19 – 1

Pavel Šebesta – Grinnin’ Blades – 1st Place (4-0-1)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Sludgeraker heavy debuffs and shooting

Thoughts

It’s been a long journey for Kruleboyz to respectability, with an army that felt unfinished and was gradually buffed over and over again by GW in order to help the army along in the face of a metagame that increased in intensity and power level over time. I wouldn’t describe the army as ‘great’ despite all these buffs, but it finally seems to have hit a breakpoint where you can fit enough stuff in to have serious game into a lot of different armies.

Grinnin’ Blades remains one of the best subfaction traits in the game (can’t be seen outside of 12″), and Primal Dice help with one of the armies chief weaknesses (powerful spells gated behind lofty casting values of 7+ in an army with no buffs to spellcasting). The army still really struggles with primary objective control, but it has the scalpel like qualities to slice through a lot of combo-reliant armies and a Kruleboyz double turn is one of the most terrifying things to deal with in the game. Well done Pavel.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Joachim Berger – Hollowmourne Grand Court: Joachim goes Horror heavy, packing 18 of them with the possibility of summoning on even more from it’s suite of Abhorrants, with two Courtiers to help keep them healthy
• 3rd – László Gergely – Jaws of Mork: See showdown
• 4th – Alexander Sluka – Barak-Nar: An aggressive melee build with 2 fully reinforced squads of Endrinriggers riding inside Frigates, hoping to buff their attacks characteristic by having Brokk join the fray as well
• 5th – Peter Kreitl – Big Waaagh!: Peter shows us what life after 80 point Ardboys might look like, that goes light on Brute battleline to afford 9 Gore-Gruntas, no Gobsprakk (but a Shaman for battle tactic access) and 6 Ragerz with Hackas to give the army a cheap and very potent hammer
• 6th – Tomáš Růt – Cabalists: A fun looking brew that utilises a lot of Tzeentch (!) marked heroes and Chaos Warriors, 6 Theridons as a cheeky hammer and 2 Mutalith Vortex Beasts
• 7th – Jan Tomeček – Darkwalkers: Be’lakor plus Ungor Raiders makes for a standard core, with a Doombull plus 9 Bullgors for insane damage and a Gargant to help crack tough anvil units (as BoC famously struggle to do apparently, lol)
• 8th – Tim Middlecoate – Jaws of Mork: fairly standard squig heavy list, with Grinkrak and some Sporesplatta Fanatics to mix it up a bit

Tough Castle 2023

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Beach Lake, PA, United States on October 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. As you’ll see from some of the choices players have made in their list construction, these guys and gals were here to have a good and bizarre time.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Frederic Bigras-Burrogano – Gristlegore Grand Court:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Tristan Gray – Null Myriad:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Well first off, I must lead with something that I don’t take pleasure in but must point out – Frederic has made the bizarre mistake (and I do say mistake, I’m not inclined to believe foul play unless given a good reason to) on his army list of having his general with no command trait, and then another hero entirely have a command trait it can’t have, as Gristlegore armies must take Savage Strike as it’s one of those old style 2nd edition battletomes with restricted subfaction choices. The list otherwise wants to make heavy use of it’s Monsters that gain exploding hits from Peerless Ferocity, and otherwise control the board with cheap Crypt Ghouls.

Tristan has taken the interesting line of dropping Katakros from his Dull Myriad list altogether, and his exclusion opens up listbuilding considerably, as Tristan can include a Mortek Crawler, 3 endless spells and a total of 3 spellcasters including Arkhan as a result. It does mean that the army isn’t as tough as a typical OBR list, but the trade-off is that it’s very versatile and can still blow armies the fuck up with 6 Stalkers.

In this matchup, I can very easily see how the Immortis and Stalkers could just blend through the mostly squishy FEC hammers, and the Carrion negates the ability of the Crypt Ghouls to even contest objectives. I could see this one having turned ugly fast.

Result

Null Myriad Victory – 16 – 4

Tristan Gray – Null Myriad – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Kata-less cookie cutter

Thoughts

Is the Mortek Crawler worth it at 180? I’m not entirely sure, because strikes-last is a potent effect, but as it’s only a 3+ dice roll it does make it a somewhat unreliable source, and the unit’s damage output is certainly nothing to write home about.

The inclusion of all three OBR endless spells does give Tristan’s opponents a lot more to worry about, as they’re all to a certain extent very annoying to leave on the board, but getting rid of them means casting less of their own powerful spells, which is a big cost to incur in a season where spells have never been more potent. It remains to be seen if dropping Katakros is worth it in order to have this degree of flexibility, but zigging where everyone else is zagging does mean that Tristan can surprise people.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Barton Kennelly – Reapers of Vengeance: 4 Skull cannons! Barton has gone for 5 cheap mortal heroes including Valkia and Korghos (plus a Skulltaker for even more Bloodtithe for killing enemy heroes), freaking Karanak and all 3 Khorne invocations. 4 Skull Cannons!
• 3rd – Nate Trentanelli – Emerald Host: 20 Craventhrone Guard and a Black Coach headline this Hexwraith spam list that wants to plink you to death
• 4th – Jiwan Noah Singh – Goretide: Lot’s of Bloodreavers and 20 Warriors, backed up by 4 support mortals and an Unfettered Fury BT and Skarbrand
• 5th – Jeremy Veysseire – Alumnia: Vanari Bladelords and 30 Wardens standing on circles, with the Elven twins, Eltharion and other support casters to cast Soulsnare Shackles, Rune of Pet and generally make life difficult
• 6th – Frederic Bigras-Burrogano: See showdown
• 7th – Kaleb Walters – Eternal Conflagration: A double LOC shooting list with 3 Flamers and an Exalted Flamer – presumably aiming to summon lots of Flamers over the course of the game
• 8th – Josh Hankin – Big Waaagh!: No army list submitted

Wrap Up

What can we take away from this week? I must admit I’m not entirely sure. It’s possible that Kruleboyz might be a thing now, but the relatively small tournament size means I’m inclined to take such an idea with a grain of salt, and we will adopt a wait and see approach until we see more tournaments. It certainly feels like things are up in the air, and the next few weeks will hopefully begin to bring things into focus and give us more than simply theories as to what is flourishing.

That said, it certainly does seem like OBR and Soulblight are still very strong and real and (not) my friend, as the core is so strong they simply had to adapt and keep on trucking. Stuff like Namarti spam cropping up and other unusual looking armies like Gutbuster Ogors does suggest though that things have opened up a little. Until next week!