Six tournaments this week marks the busiest competitive innovations has been in a while, and there’s some interesting showdowns to cover, let’s dive in.

Nashcon Age of Sigmar GT 2022

82-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Nashville, TN, US on August 20 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. Nashcon uses a dual list format, where players submit 2 lists sharing a majority of points, and then players pick 1 of their lists for the given matchup.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Ridge Hanna – Seraphon: Ridge rocking the best of what Coalesced & Starborne have to offer in his two lists.

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vs.

Mathew Swinney – Stormcast Eternals: Hammers of Sigmar: His two variants focus either on an Alpha strike with Longstrikes, or a Galletian Veterans destroyer with no less than 20 Vanquishers in Bounty Hunters.
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Thoughts

I think that it’s a pretty easy choice for both players – if Ridge goes list 1 *AND* Matthew goes list 2 than that would be pretty rough for Ridge due to the Vanquishers providing a substantial punch against those skinks and the Fulminators operating at peak efficiency due to no scaly skin… but Ridge doesn’t have a bad matchup either way if he picks list 2 for the Thunder Lizards and Matthew’s best list against that is probably list 1 which is still going to struggle as Longstrikes without double tapping or a Lord-Relictor are going to struggle to crack through the Saurus Guard to kill the slann.

Put simply, it’s a bad matchup – Matthew’s damage output requires his spells to go off and reliance on a lot of damage 2+ stuff… which Ridge’s Thunder Lizard list effectively neuters.

Result

Seraphon Victory – 32 – 8

Ridge Hanna – Seraphon – 1st Place

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Starborne Summoning and Coalesced good stuff

Thoughts

I won’t dwell on things too long as the TL list is much what we’ve seen in the past, but it’s interesting to see another competitive level Fangs of Sotek list. Salamanders are suddenly very appealing again now that Priority targets are no longer a thing, and they’re at their best in Starborne where a unit can be teleported around the board without a dice roll and effectively annihilate whatever you point them at. If I were building a Starborne Seraphon list this kind of list is where I would start.

Tyler Emerson – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mixed arms Plague Mortals

Thoughts

Both lists are basically identical, one just trades lower drops for losing bounty hunters for certain matchups. Plague Drones are sneakily quite good (just tend to get overlooked for the undercosted Blightlords) as they serve a valuable function in distributing ranged disease points and acting as a mobile tanky screen to block off areas of the board.

This is an interesting build because as it brings 20 plaguebearers in the initial list, all it needs to do to transition into more of an annoying board control list is summon a Sloppity Bilepiper early game to start shutting off pile-ins. It’s an interesting quirk that proves that you don’t need to spam Pusgoyles (but still bring some!) in order to get the best of what the faction can offer.

The Best of the Rest

There were 14 players on 4-1 records. I regret to inform you that on a six tournament week I am in fact not going to summarise a total of 28 lists. If any of these catch your eye go look em up buddy, the power is yours (assuming you have a BCP subscription, anyway):

• 3rd – Nate Trentanelli – Nighthaunt – Scarlet Doom
• 4th – Brad College – Beasts of Chaos
• 5th – Jonathon Anderson – Lumineth Realm Lords – Zaitrec
• 6th – Joseph Pagano – Soulblight Gravelords – Kastelai
• 7th – Thomas Guan – Seraphon – Thunder Lizard
• 8th – Vincent Venturella – Stormcast Eternals – Hammers of Sigmar
• 9th – Matthew Swinney – Stormcast Eternals – Hammers of Sigmar
• 10th – Leo Rautonen – Stormcast Eternals
• 11th – Matthew Minner – Nighthaunt
• 12th – David Fields – Sylvaneth – Heartwood
• 13th – Reed Herner – Seraphon – Thunder Lizard
• 14th – Gorka Morka – Ironjawz
• 15th – Barton Kennelly – Cities of Sigmar – Hallowheart
• 16th – Britt Davis – Maggotkin of Nurgle – Befouling Host

MANCUNIAN CARNAGE: SUMMER 2022

67-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in United Kingdom/Manchester/Element Games on August 20 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Tabletop.to. This event was comped to disallow inclusion of the Incarnate in anyone’s army.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Won’t Back Down

Byron Orde – Ironjawz : Double Maw-Krusha and a Rogue Idol
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Allegiance: Ironjawz
- Grand Strategy:
- Triumphs: Indomitable

Leaders
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
- Warbeat: Get 'Em Beat
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
- General- Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
- Command Trait: Master of the Weird
- Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
- Mount Trait: Smelly 'Un
- Lore of the Weird: Bash 'Em Ladz
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
- Warbeat: Fixin' Beat
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)
- Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)
- Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist

Battleline
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*

Behemoths
Rogue Idol (430)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
The Burning Head (20)

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
Total: 1985 / 2000
Wounds: 100
Drops: 3

vs.

Duncan Woods – Skaventide: Stormfiends and Thanquol with Lauchon
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- Army Faction: Skaven
- Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
- Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS

Verminlord Deceiver (405)
- General
- Command Traits: Devious Adversary
- Artefacts of Power: Shadow Magnet Trinket
- Spells: Flaming Weapon
Warlock Bombardier (115)*
- Spells: More-more-more Warp Power!
Thanquol (415)* 
- 2 x Warpfire Braziers 
- 2 x Warpfire Projectors 
- Spells: Skitterleap

BATTLELINE
Stormfiends (640)*
- 2 x Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows
- 2 x Ratling Cannons and Clubbing Blows
- 2 x Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour
Clanrats (100)*
- Clawleader 
- Clanrat Standard Bearer 
- Clanrat Bell-ringer 
- Rusty Blade
Clanrats (100)*
- Clawleader 
- Clanrat Standard Bearer 
- Clanrat Bell-ringer 
- Rusty Blade

ARTILLERY
Warplock Jezzails (120)*

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
1 x Lauchon the Soulseeker (30)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1995/2000

Thoughts

Duncan has the kind of list that can typically hang back, bully with Stormfiends and Thanquol the opponent’s large units and clean up after tabling their opponent, perhaps falling behind early on scoring but scoring big late game… Thanquol is perhaps at his absolute worst here though.

Why? Well it’s because Byron has decided to forget about all that line infantry nonsense and takes the bare minimum to fulfil requirements, and then goes *big*. Two Maw-Krushas and a Rogue Idol can quickly apply pressure on your opponent’s army as early as turn one, which is bad news bears for the Stormfiends. They’ll likely survive turn one of course, as the ablative wo-*ahem* I mean, Clanrats will heroically sacrifice themselves to hold back the tide for a moment, but only 6 Fiends will struggle to do more than maybe lift one of the Maw-krushas… which leaves the other to promptly squash them.

The mission does allow Duncan the opportunity to backboard deploy and try to put as much distance as he can between himself and the Ironjawz, give Byron the first turn and then hope for an early double. At that point leveraging that amount of firepower would likely do enough to cripple the Orruks completely.

Result

Victory – 2 – 0

Byron Orde – Ironjawz – 1st Place

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Ironsunz Monster Mash

Thoughts

It’s an interesting list for a number of reasons – it foregoes Gore Gruntas entirely (a popular Bounty Hunter choice) in order to present an overwhelming wall of Iron. He foregoes Master of Magic in favour of Master of the Weird (though doesn’t pick a second spell, I assume it was hand of gork), and the Rogue Idol does mitigate the loss of this somewhat as it gives a +1 bonus to nearby Orruk wizards.

The Rogue Idol itself is funny – is it overpriced? Almost certainly, but now that Monsters no longer give up bonus points it’s also just an annoying unit for your opponent to deal with that cotnributes a respectable amount of damage. When your entire strategy is ‘kill everything we touch to set off a wave of Smashing and Bashing and present counter charges on your opponents turn’, the Idol helps with that in a way that Gore Gruntas might not necessarily. Yes they’re extremely killy, but they’re also distinctly easier to kill than a Rogue Idol.

Toby Meadows – Slaves to Darkness – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Armour save of 2+, ignoring rend 1 or 2, rerolling 1s.

Thoughts

For those not in the know – Tzeentch Varanguard are capable of stacking armour saves such that they have that most infuriating of armour saves that many armies straight up cannot get past. The Warshrine and the CSL can both hand out +1 save without a dice roll, meaning the list can reliably get to a 2+ save ignoring rend 1 (or 2 if allowed to AOD), and the Tzeentch Aura allows them to reroll 1s to save. This means that only 1 in 36 of most attack profiles in the game will actually penetrate through and do anything. Oh and one of the units can activate and pile in 6″, as well as shut off retreat for any units it tags.

It’s the kind of list that may struggle against heavy mortal wound output, but with Lumineth on the decline and Kruleboyz… well being awful, you don’t actually see this list’s natural predator all that often. Nurgle could do it overtime, but Varanguard have got the weight of dice and output to blender even Pusgoyles with their once per game fight twice ability.

Lastly, Toby has 40+ wounds worth of 3+ save rerolling 1s chaff in the Iron Golems for a total investment of 300 points. Ooooooff.

The Best of the Rest

There were 11 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Max Barton – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Pusgoyle spam + Maggoth lords
• 4th – Phil Marshall – Nighthaunt: Bladegheist spam with double Kruciator
• 5th – Simon W – Nighthaunt: Hexwraith spam with double Kruciator
• 6th – Max Soule – Slaves to Darkness: Host of the Everchosen means Archaon, 6 Varanguard and lots of Cultist chaff
• 7th – Paul Scott – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Beasts of Nurgle spam
• 8th – Kieron A – Idoneth Deepkin: Reavers spam with a Celestant Prime
• 9th – Louis Meadows – Fyreslayers: Magmadroth spam!!!
• 10th – Stephen Follows – Kharadron Overlords: Double Ironclad Zilfin list with Rune of Petrification in a bottle
• 11th – Duncan Woods – Skaven: See showdown

Capital City Bloodbath – Age Of Sigmar Champs

43-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Ottawa, ON, CA on August 20 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Carl Ong – Flesh-eater Courts: Bounty Hunter Crypt Flayers & an Incarnate
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vs.

Olivier Gandouet – Cities of Sigmar: Hallowheart: Spellcasting shooty Cities
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Thoughts

It’s a classic matchup – overpowering fast combat army versus tricksy shooting list with magic. The thing that stands out when comparing these lists is two things:

1. Crossbowmen have pretty much ideal targets here, as FEC lacks  quality armour saves and they’re going to drown them in low quality dice as a result
2. The CoS army lacks high quality anvils to hold the Incarnate in place, just speed bumps

Which makes this matchup rather tricky. OTOH, Carl has to play very cagey as anything he exposes to the Crossbowmen is likely to get lifted pretty easily outside of the Incarnate. But when he *does* get into the thick of things, he can pretty easily shut down everything that Olivier is trying to do. The Endless spells in particular become somewhat of a liability, as the Horrorghast/Bridge would make tasty snacks for the Incarnate to eat to replenish levels.

Olivier outdropping Carl here is big, as they can give turn 1 to the FEC player and hope for an early double, or simply give the turn back if they win priority and they don’t have an ideal double opportunity lined up. That strategy is pretty important, as the one thing Olivier can’t afford to do is be doubled by this army going into round 3, as the damage output is high enough to lift everything if given half the chance. My gut tells me the Incarnate’s success or failures will define this game.

Result

Flesh-eater Courts Victory – 27 – 26

Carl Ong – Flesh-eater Courts – 1st Place

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Crypt Flayers turned up to 11

Thoughts

FEC are already a glass cannon army, but living on the edge can have it’s advantages – Crypt Flayers in Bounty Hunters can throw out an absolutely absurd amount of damage, both in the form of Mortal Wounds and just in weight of dice. They’re also very fast and able to fight twice, so against certain GV heavy armies these guys can clean up.

The rest of the army is more about enabling the strategy – the Incarnate serves as a great distraction carnifex to try and tie up bounty hunters and just generally be a nuisance, whereas the hero suite is there to provide buff spells and summoning for board control. FEC can actually *triple* dip on a unit’s replenishment in this list:

• Rally, but everybody gets that, who cares
• The Crypt Infernal Courtier can replenish using it’s Muster Royal Guard ability
• The same CIC can also use it’s heroic action to use the WD update’s Muster Reinforcements heroic action ability

So while a unit of 9 is a lot of points to invest in one unit, if he can protect it from being destroyed outright, it can pretty consistently be restored and made healthy enough to destroy whatever threatens it.

Michael Simeon – Bonesplitterz – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Big Stabba spam

Thoughts

It’s a pretty well established archetype in the current metagame so not too much to comment on, though this list skips over an Incarnate and/or Drakkfoot in order to explore Icebone. This gives the army a different feel, as suddenly every unit can pump out mortal wounds on 6s to wound, making them better in a save stacking metagame. In addition, Boarboyz become battleline, which let’s the army trade out foot infantry for better Cavalry as it’s Battleline, closing off any weakness to Bounty Hunters and acting as a more reliable screen as a result.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Olivier Gandouet – Cities of Sigmar: See showdown
• 4th – Jordan Duncan – Idoneth Deepkin: Mor’phann Namarti spam with an Incarnate
• 5th – Danick Gagne – Seraphon: Stupendous Skink spam in Starborne Seraphon!

Age of Sigmar Gateway Open 2022

43-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Collinsville, IL, US on August 20 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Smitty Smith – Daughters of Khaine: Zainthar Kai: Morathi and the bow snakes
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vs.

Mrigank Jha – Stormcast Eternals: Knights Excelsior: Mixed arms Stormcast
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Thoughts

The Bow Snakes are back with a vengeance and this list in particular goes all in – a full compliment of 15 and very little points leftover for *stuff* means it’s leaning heavily on Morathi and the bows to win them the game. They have the damage output to take care of the Stormcast, so what could lose them the game?

Well, Mrigank can tuck most of his important units in deep strike, and what he *will* present for shooting will either be a high armor save unit or tucked away in the back corner of the board to be teleported in when needed. It’s a strategy that can blunt the offensive might of the Bow snakes, and leaves Smitty with a difficult decision – go first to try and get the first punch in, and leave themselves open to a double.. or let the deep striking alpha strike army get a real good shot in on the bow snakes?

What does that shot look like? Well, despite the nerf to Thundershock volley, Mrigank can still deliver a double tap from one of his units of Longstrikes, and the others can simply deep strike in and deliver rend 2 shots into the Bow Snakes that don’t particularly care about rolling 6s or not because their high quality output will punch through the Snakes meagre defences anyway. For a followup, Mrigank can charge one or both of his Annihilator units in, which while small in numbers can easily blender through anything they get into combat with. Morathi will have to win the day herself, as I don’t expect the rest of Smitty’s hammers to last long if he can get the charge off out of deepstrike with the dragons/paladins.

Result

Stormcast Eternals: Knights Excelsior Victory – 17 – 4

Mrigank Jha – Stormcast Eternals: Knights Excelsior – 1st Place

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Mixed arms Stormcast

Thoughts

It’s just a nice, balanced list? I will say that it may struggle against board control lists with lots of durability like Nurgle as they don’t really have anything in the way of chaff that can help control when and where combats happen, but it’s going to feast on other alpha strike lists or castle style armies that hope to project their power outwards.

We’re starting to see a lot more Horrorghasts floating around, a nice bit of tech that seeks to steal Nighthaunt’s gimmick of making bravery matter again.

Ryan Cavin – Cities of Sigmar: Living City – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

I don’t even know what to call this – Mid 80s metal album cover?

Thoughts

Did you know that you could put Gotrek in Bounty Hunters? Yup! As he’s not a Leader (ignore the list output above) he technically falls into the Troops category, which means he gets to benefit from a tiny bit of overkill damage, as a treat.

The Battlemage can give Gotrek a boost to his charge rolls to help the little cannonball of violence get where it needs to be going more consistently, and the Phoenix and Stormdrake act as a nightmarish power pair that will be hard to kill and kill nearly anything they touch.

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Daniel Pitt – Blades of Khorne: Bounty Hunters Bloodletters! Oh and Skarbrand + two Bloodthirsters, but who cares about that
• 4th – Walker Snapp – Sons of Behemat: On the other end of the ‘make Mike excited’ scale, we have double Gatebreaker double Warstomper SOB
• 5th – Smitty Smith – Daughters of Khaine: See showdown
• 6th – Sean Seyer – Legion of the First Prince: Nerfed LOFP? No problem! Be’lakor/Boomthirster/Kairos/Epitome with Fourfold blade, with a heavy spellcasting package
• 7th – Tracy Ptacek – Stormcast Eternals: 7 Dragons and 6 Longstrikes aint dead
• 8th – Zano Korellio – Stormcast Eternals: 4 Dragons and 6 Longstrikes, using it’s saved points for some Judicators for extra ranged punch

Salt Lake Open 2022 – AoS Tournament

33-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Salt Lake City, UT, US on August 20 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Dustin Chesmer – Fyreslayers: Greyfyrd: Hearthguard and lots of foot dudes
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vs.

Russ Tanner – Ogor Mawtribes: Bloodgullet: Wait they allow Ogors in the showdown!? Stonehorns rule!
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Thoughts

I think the funniest part of this Fyreslayers army is that it looks like the kind of list you’d see in a White Dwarf battle report – showcasing as much of the miniatures range as it can and not really leaning heavily into any *one* thing.

On the other hand, the Ogor army is all in on herohammer, relying on it’s three monsters to do the brunt of the work while the Yhetees serve as cheap and cheerful battleline that will die to a stiff breeze but can potentially cause chaos if left alive due to their 6″ activate and pile in, high movement and surprising damage output for their cost.

Good Ogor charges could do the business, and I expect priority rolls will play a role here as it’s strength against strength, but the humble Runesmiter may be the pivotal unit here, as it gives the Fyreslayers a bit of reach to attack the opponent’s home objectives and require Russ to hold more back than he would like.

Result

Fyreslayers: Greyfyrd Victory – 26 – 23

Dustin Chesmer – Fyreslayers: Greyfyrd – 1st Place

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Many dudes that look identical and hit very hard

Thoughts

It’s just pretty cool isn’t it? We like to rag on Fyreslayers but this list is full of surprisingly hard hitting foot heroes in a sea of surprisingly hardy dwarves that may take a little bit to get where they need to go, but will happily annihilate whatever they touch in combat.

They have a particular weakness against Bounty Hunters, but a 4+ Ward on the Hearthguard Berzerkers means they’re not as prone to falling apart on contact as other Galletian Veterans, and they’re the kind of unit that could themselves hunt the hunters.

The Icon means they’re ignoring spells and effects on a 4+ which is big in a world dominated by the Purple Sun, and rallying on a 4+ can give them some real play against armies like Nurgle and other grindy armies. The wheels might come off a bit against Nighthaunt, but no army can really do everything.

Noe Aquino – Stormcast Eternals: Celestial Warbringers – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Raise the banners! More! I SAID MORE! RAISE THEM!!!

Thoughts

I swear to Mork this week is drunk – 5 Meteoric Standards means once per game he can throw out a cloud of 5D3 mortals in a 6″ circle any point 24″ away from the five dudes with Banners. So he does that and has a back corner Relictor whose entire job is presumably to cast the Comet for another d3-d6 mortal wound bomb outside of unbind range.

And then the Annhiliators drop out of deep strike to do another d3 mortal wounds to everything nearby when they drop, and then charge in for more mortal wounds. And then the Chariot charges whatever is still standing and throws more mortal wounds at it.

The Judicators stand around and plink off whatever poor bastards are still standing.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 3rd – Russ Tanner – Ogor Mawtribes: See showdown
• 4th – Benjamin Larmore – Sons of Behemat: Triple Gatebreaker + Incarnate
• 5th – Eddy Andrews – Flesheater Courts: 9 Crypt Flayers in BH with Monster support
• 6th – Justin Costello – Seraphon: Thunder Lizards with a Dread Saurian because *WHY NOT?*

NI GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland, GB on August 20 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Mick Wendel – Daughters of Khaine: Khailebron: Morathi and the Bow Snakes and an Incarnate
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vs.

Brendan McKernan – Stormcast Eternals: Hammers of Sigmar: Mixed arms Stormcast
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

It’s two very difficult to kill mega monsters with Bow support versus a very mixed arms Stormcast list. The former is pretty self explanatory so let’s talk about the Stormcast list.

Vandus isn’t at his best here, as his buff to attacks only effect Redeemer units so only the Liberators here. That said, he’s still a pretty killy beat stick that has the added bonus of making his army battleshock immune. The Concussors will evaporate anything Mick has outside of his big dudes/dudettes, and may be able to survive a combat long enough to serve as a rudimentary anvil against them, as will the Protectors.

The problem at it’s core that I see is that I don’t think he has the damage output necessary to kill the Incarnate *AND* Morathi while still having enough stuff left over to deal with the double tapping Bow snakes. It’s a rough matchup.

Result

Daughters of Khaine: Khailebron Victory – 631 – 5

Mick Wendel – Daughters of Khaine: Khailebron – 1st Place

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Morathi and the Bowsnakes with guest bassist Incarnate

Thoughts

Yikes.

Colin Cochrane – Stormcast Eternals – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mixed arms Stormcast

Thoughts

A Runelord is an ally I’m surprised we don’t see more often, a cheap source of a +2 unbind is nice to have in a world with Purple Sun. This list otherwise adheres to the core principles of a lot of successful Stormcast lists: A sizable shooting element with Liberators to hold the front, a Lord-Relictor to give the army some much needed objective mobility, and a sizable hammer to move around and clear shit with – in this case, 10 Protectors.

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Solomon Morrow – Nighthaunt: A mixed Emerald Host list with Olynder and an Incarnate headlining
• 4th – Sean Murray – Fyreslayers: Lofnir Magmadroths
• 5th – Brendan Mckernan – Stormcast Eternals: See showdown

Wrap Up

What a mad week with some genuine surprises and a lot of interesting lists to uncover – which was your favorite? Let us know.

Ellarr also has his own Youtube channel to cover other aspects of competitive Age of Sigmar which you can find here. If you have any questions or comments leave one down below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.