It’s been a mixed bag for ol’ Ellarr, reader. A fantastic weekend at Sanctuary Games for Quest of Champions Heat 2, as well as the underwhelming reveal of Arena of Shades weakening my precious Nighthaunt. But let’s not talk about my struggles, let’s talk about the metagame at the moment.

The recent battlescroll has seemed to have an impact not necessarily on overall tournament results, but on meta representation. The number of Stormcast lists have plummeted, and heavy hitters like Thunder Lizards appear to have adapted somewhat to the changes by dropping Salamanders from their line ups. Does that make the battlescroll update a success? The truth is it’s too early to tell, and with a very limited data set this could just be a coincidence and we see a return to normalcy next week.

My gut feeling is that we may have seen the end of Sons of Behemat as a serious contender, that Thunder Lizard players will simply tweak and thrive anyway (seriously GW, the problem is Scaly Skin!), and that Stormcast players will return with a vengeance after some tweaks. My worry however is that the update won’t achieve what’s really needed – uplifting the game’s weakest factions.

Let’s get to this week’s results.

Quest of Champions Heat 2

A two-day, five-round event which took place at Sanctuary Gaming Centre and Coffee Shop, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, England. I attended this event and had a blast, losing to the eventual 1st and 2nd placed players and finishing 11th (out of 40, for those of you wondering). If you’re in the area I highly recommend you check out Sanctuary Gaming, it’s a great venue and it’s food and drink are very reasonably priced! You can find the lists for this event at BCP. 

Dan Bradshaw – Beasts of Chaos – First Place

Dan's List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• 15 Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs to deliver the pain with extreme prejudice
• 6 Dragon Ogors and 20 Tzaangors make a resilient brick of wounds to control space
• A grand total of 173 wounds, that will grow as the game goes on thanks to exceptional summoning capabilities

Why it’s Interesting

I had a chat with Dan during our game about the army and he’s owned them for a long time, so it’s not a surprise that he took the BoC update and laughed all the way to the podium, as he’s a very accomplished wargamer in his own right. There’s been a lot of discussion about the ‘best’ way to build BoC after their white dwarf update, and today’s success leans heavily on the revitalized Tzaangor Enlightened warscroll.

With a 19″ move (if near the Bray Shaman), these guys are the ultimate flying cavalry, being able to threaten anywhere on the board fairly quickly, and with added rend they are now a proficient blender. Yes they have a fairly weak save of a 5+, and yes their reroll ability requires that your opponent activates elsewhere first… but that’s why you bring multiple units and summon more in – this army works by trading threats with your opponent and wearing them down.

Not many armies will have the tools necessary to chew through 6 Dragon Ogors, 20 Tzaangors and 15 Enlightened on Discs and still have enough left to deal with the follow up threats Dan would bring on – my Big Waaagh list certainly couldn’t. It’s an interesting approach that can take on Thunder Lizards and grind them down through attrition – congratulations Dan.

Fabian Quinn – Seraphon – Second Place

Fabian's List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• Priority Targets means Salamanders are on the down swing a tad, so Fabian brings an extra Bastiladon – who take a severe beating before coughing up the points
• A Stegadon Skink Chief that can revive on a 4+ adds an interesting wrinkle

Why it’s Interesting

The second list I lost to over the weekend, Fabian is rocking the game’s best army and piloting it well – he went undefeated over the weekend, drawing only in the finals against Mike Stewart’s Thunder Lizards on the Vice (which sounds like the kind of match neither player would have fun with, to be honest).

The same strong core is here, with a block of 30 skinks and the requisite buff heroes, and Fabian has used his flex points on a Skink Chief on Stegadon for a decently punchy melee threat (especially when a multitude of attack buffs are stacked on it) that your opponent will struggle to bring down for good! Case in point, I killed it turn 1 with my Sludgeraker, only for him to roll a 4 for his Incandescent Rectrices artefact and revive from the dead to full wounds, and promptly killed my monster on the return swing!

It’s an interesting innovation in a list that often sits back and plinks away, and importantly it doesn’t give up a priority target point once it’s eventually gone. Congratulations on the 4-0-1 Fabian!

The Rest of the Best

4 more players finished on 4-1:

• 3rd – Mike Stewart – Seraphon: Mike isn’t afraid of giving up Priority Target points here, as he’s rocking a total of 4 Salamanders and 2 Bastiladons. Who cares about giving your opponent a few consolation points when you’ve tabled them!
• 4th – JJ Cropley – Soulblight Gravelords: 20 Direwolves lead the vanguard, followed by 120 shambling Zombies. As for the rest of this Vyrkos list, Mannfred makes the usual appearance, with Vampire Lord, Necromancer, Gorslav and Belladamma making up the support package.
• 5th – Alex Tubb – Big Waaagh: A friend of mine I carpooled with to the event, Alex is a fellow BW aficionado who goes for a primarily Ardboyz Ironjawz kind of list, but supplements it with a Mirebrute for access to Mork’s Eye Pebble, a Wurgogg Prophet for the insanely powerful eye lazers, 6 boltboyz and a shaman for some ranged support and a Megaboss to keep ’em in line. #BigWaaaghMeta
• 6th – Troy Hardy – Legion of the First Prince: 30 Plaguebearers make the initial list bulk, with the standard Be’lakor/Kairos/Lifeswarm package – Troy opts for double Boomthirsters for damage and a Changecaster for support.

Fantasia Fanatic XLI AOS

A two-day, five-round event in Sweden. You can find lists for this event at BCP. 

Ronya Andersson – Nighthaunt – First Place

Ronya's List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• Double Black Coach from the top rope!
• Speed and mortal wounds are the name of the game here, with almost the entire army capable of at least some mortal wound output.

Why it’s Interesting

As a Nighthaunt player myself, I love what Ronya has done here. There’s typically two schools of thought when making Nighthaunt lists. The first is to go heavy on bodies and rely on a grindy affair where you win through attrition and board control. Ronya’s gone for the other path, which involves the same level of board control but trading bodies for speed – the Hexwraiths will be moving 15″ if they start their move near the Guardian of Souls thanks to Pendent of the Fell Wind, and the Black Coaches even further (with them being able to run and charge most of the time thanks to their warscroll abilities).

So how do they establish board control? Well it’s all about the bases – the Hexwraiths can body block a large footprint thanks to their bases, likewise for the Black Coaches. Ronya can pin units in unfavourable positions and help them survive through the Black Coaches and Olynder adding D3 models back to a unit each turn (with Olynder putting 1 model back to each unit nearby instead). To help their stickiness even more, the Cruciator making their ward save stronger, and the Guardian can even chip in with his warscroll spell.

When it’s time to kill something, chip mortals are contributed in the movement phase by the Hexwraiths, before the Knight of Shrouds buffs up one of the larger units of Hexwraiths, who’ll each put out 4 attacks in the subsequent combat phase if they charged, with 6s doing a mortal wound. It’s not the highest quality suite of attacks (Nighthaunt aren’t really known for that), but mortal wounds are very good in the metagame right now and this leans into it as best as is realistic in Nighthaunt.

Alexis Herbeck – Stormcast Eternals – Second Place

Alexis' List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• A bit of everything in this mixed arms Hammers of Sigmar List
• Mobility comes in the form of the Translocation prayer and Stormdrakes
• Ranged punch is delivered by the Longstrikes and Judicators, backed up by a Knight-Judicator (with some useful buffs from the Gryph-Hounds and Aetherwings
• A core of Vindictors, Liberators and Stormdrakes to deliver Sigmar’s wrath

Why it’s Interesting

A very balanced list that manages to do it all, though giving up a bit of everything in order to be so versatile. The Knight-Incantor gives you a bit of anti magic, the army can grind fairly well thanks to Call for Aid bringing a unit of basic dudes back once per game, and it can also deliver a high amount of targeted damage thanks to the Longstrikes and Thunderbolt Volley.

It’s actually quite refreshing to see such a balanced list, because Stormcast have always struck me as a jack-of-all-trades, master of none sort of army, and Alexis has really leaned into it, making sure every unit in the army has a specific purpose. It’s not flashy, but it’s likely to have game against everything in the meta simply because it’s got such a deep toolbox.

The Rest of the Best

Softscore make the placings a bit wonky, but 4 more players finished on 4-1 or 4-0-1, which we’ll cover below:

• 3rd – Per Sigvallius – Cities of Sigmar: 4 Stormdrakes, a bunch of Concussors and a shit load of Crossbowmen in Living Cities. Doralia makes an appearance as a lone sniper.
• 5th – Johan Dyrlind – Maggotkin of Nurgle: 8 Pusgoyle Blightlords in Drowned Men benefit from Be’lakor’s support capabilities to be much quicker than your average Nurgle list. LoA with Splithorn Helm and Overpowering Stench comes along to shut off command abilities and deny your opponent the ability to react to your game plan.
• 6th – Jesper Melander – Idoneth Deepkin: A Fuethan build that commits the ultimate elf sin in bringing along Gotrek! Sharks and Namarti make up the bulk of the list.
• 7th – Morgan Norman – Flesh Eater Courts: 6 Crypt Flayers, 6 Crypt Horrors and a King on Terrorgheist with anti-shooting artefact make up the core of this Blisterskin list. The standard suite of support heroes are here to provide additional summoning and play the board control game.

TRS – TORNEO REGIO SABAUDO – RANK 1 LEGA CAOS 

A five round, two day event that took place in Italy. Lists were pulled from Tabletop.to.

Roberto Callagari – Blades of Khorne – First Place

Roberto's List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• 30 Untamed Beasts serve a useful purpose, acting as a forward screen and a cheap source of Blood Tithe
• A grand total of 30 Wrathmongers deliver the thicc, acting as the hammer of the army
• Skarr Bloodwrath is here to die repeatedly for the glory of Khorne

Why It’s Interesting

Because it’s a Khorne list that’s succeeded without leaning heavily on Boomthirsters? This is an elegant and unusual list that leans into Wrathmongers, an off-pick but a relatively strong choice within what’s widely considered a fairly weak book. Wrathmongers are fairly punchy themselves, but what’s notable is how relatively economical they are – at 3 wounds a piece and at 145 for 5, you’re paying just under 10 points per wound, and they deliver high quality attacks that can also dump mortal wounds on death.

The Khorne DP is here to use his command ability to make charges twice as hard, meaning that Roberto is often dictating combats unless your opponent has substantial enough shooting to take out the Daemon Prince early. From there it’s all about holding objectives and making favorable trades, as the suite of support heroes and Wrathmongers all contributing extra attacks means even the humble Bloodreaver can punch way above it’s weight.

Federico Azzali – Ogor Mawtribes – Second Place

Federico's List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• Back to basics Ogors, with no fewer than 24 Ironguts!
• With very few points remaining after all those absolute units, the rest of the points are used for some cost effective screens and support heroes.

Why It’s Interesting

It’s about as off the beaten path as it get’s for this 5-0 list – Federico has opted for no Subfaction so he can have free reign over Artefact and Command Trait choices, and he’s opted for a very tough Tyrant. They have a total of 10 wounds (before Big Name choices) and six shots from his pistol that presents a fairly sizable ranged threat from a single model, with a damage ceiling of up to 6*D3 damage at 12″ range.

Anyway, that’s not why this is interesting, let’s talk Ironguts. These bad boys have always been interesting but have not enjoyed sustained success. Damage 3 weapons are obviously extremely potent, but rend 1 doesn’t go as far as it used to. That said, in a world with very few rerolls, Ironguts gain access to reroll 1’s on hits, wounds AND saves if at least one friendly model has fled to battleshock. Enter the Frost sabres and Gnoblars, who exist to screen early, charge into something weak and get their asses kicked, then enable this once per game ability on the three units of Ironguts, who can utilise it to really punch above their considerable weight.

The Rest of the Best

8 players finished 4-1, here they are:

• 3rd – Manuel D’Isidoro – Beasts of Chaos: Gavespawn with 40 Tzaangors, 6 Dragon Ogors, 6 Bulgors and 2 Ghorgons – that’s a lot of beef!
• 4th – Guglielmo Førgive Famiani – Seraphon: Standard Thunder Lizards list that gets weird with 2 Stegadons in addition to the EOTG, and a Knight-Draconis for some potent herohammer.
• 5th – Giuseppe Dargeni – Soulblight Gravelords: Kastelai Blood Knights – 15 of them, with Vhordrai, Mannfred and Cogs to help push them up the board. Zombies and a Vengorian Lord make up the rest of this spicy brew.
• 6th – Giovanni Catena – Stormcast Eternals: 7 Stormdrakes, 6 Longstrikes and a Lord Relictor.
• 7th – Andrea Epis – UNKNOWN: No list data was submitted.
• 8th – Andrea Nocifora – Maggotkin of Nurgle: 40 Plaguebearers, a GUO and 2 Maggoth lords = a headache for your opponent.
• 9th – Riccardo D’Uva – Stormcast Eternals: 5 Stormdrakes, 6 Longstrikes, a Lord Relictor and 15 Vindictors.
• 10th – Marco Franza – Kharadron Overlords: Double Ironclad Zilfin list with Phosphorite Bomblets on a Bubble Endrinmaster and Brokk Grungsson! 30 Arkanauts help with objective control.

MIDTCON GT – AGE OF SIGMAR 2022 

A five round, two day event that took place in Denmark. Lists were pulled from Tabletop.to. Weirdly enough, no player names were submitted, so we’re going anonymous style today.

Seraphon – First Place

List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• That’s a lot of skinks?

Why It’s Interesting

It’s a fairly standard Thunder Lizards list that I’ve written about a lot over the past month or so – they’ve opted to use their flex points for even more skinks, meaning this list will represent a significant challenge for any army that relies on damage 2 weaponry, as those skinks represent a significant challenge in clearing off objectives while surviving the relentless onslaught of Thunder Lizards.

GW, please, my metagame column – it is so tired of Thunder Lizards.

Ironjawz – Second Place

List - Click to expand

Notable Features

• Double Cabbages and 6 Gore Gruntas represent one hell of a turn one punch.

Why It’s Interesting

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a standard Ironjawz list podium, and this leans into the strengths of the faction. The plan is simple – deliver Mawcrushas and Gore Gruntas directly into your opponent’s phase turn one, keep charging in your opponent’s turn thanks to the Ironsuns ability, and never let your opponent out of their deployment zone.

Ardboyz serve a necessary battleline tax, as well as screens for aggro mirror matches, and the Warchanters buff up the big stuff as necessary. Simple but brutally effective.

The Rest of the Best

3 more players went 4-1:

• 3rd Place – Cities of Sigmar: Living Cities with 4 Fulminators, 4 Stormdrakes, a Hurricanum and some ranged support in the form of Crossbowmen and Scourgerunner Chariots.
• 4th Place – Legion of the First Prince: 20 Pinks, Lifeswarm/Spellportal, Be’lakor/Kairos/Khorne DP/Boomthirster. A classic.
• 5th Place – Soulblight Gravelords: 20 Kastelai Blood Knights, 40 Grave Guard and Mannfred + Vengorian Lord in a 2 drop list.

Next Time: The Downswing of Stormcast?

We’re seeing some interesting results this week, with some sleeper armies cracking through to the podium to challenge the metagame dominance of Thunder Lizards. Will this last? Will Stormcast flood the metagame once again with Dragons? Will Skaven ever get new Skryre Acolyte sculpts? Find out the answer to potentially none of these questions next week!

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