Welcome dear reader, to the last CI before the community hopefully at last sees the latest Battlescroll update. Kruleboyz players (so that’s me and a few other sickos) and Gloomspite Gitz players wait with bated breath for buffs to these woeful armies… while the rest of the community loudly cries out for nerfs to what are considered the primary big bads at the top of the metagame: BoC (particularly Drogors), Nurgle (Pusgoyles), and the Krondspine Incarnate of Etsy/Cults 3D/Your mate’s 3d printer at the gaming club.

FLG’s SoCal Open Age of Sigmar Champions Event

45-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Del Mar, CA, US on October 22 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Aaron Newbom – Big WAAAGH!: A more shooty style BW list
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vs.

Ramon Silva – Hammers of Sigmar: Mortal Wound firehose goes PSHHHHHHHH
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Result

Hammers of Sigmar Victory – 527 – 3

Thoughts

So we have a more fragile Big Waaagh list that features some more shooting (than usual) and sneaky tricks in the Supa Sneaky/Mirebrute combo, versus a list that wants to put as many targeted mortal wounds on a small clump of units as possible… Yeah it’s pretty easy to see why Stormcast won here. The BW list is setup very well to fight the fair fight, and in a more typical grindy matchup where the Ardboyz and Gore Gruntas could be leveraged with buffs to deliver fantastic value then Aaron would be positioned well for a win… But.

The problem is the sheer amount of ranged mortal wounds that Ramon can deploy to pick a part his key support pieces in the Warchanter, the Weirdnob and the Killaboss… all this while still being able to handily delete the Boltboyz from a mostly safe distance. That’s not to say that Ramon won’t fall behind – he likely will in the face of Expert Conquerors Ardboyz on the primary points, but it won’t matter as the game draws out into five rounds.

Ramon Silva – Hammers of Sigmar – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Rain of Stars v2.0

Thoughts

This started out as a bit of a meme list, I believe originating from Adam Mumford, Rob Symes and pals (correct me if I’m wrong please!), which has since evolved and taken on a life of its own and seen some decent success. How does it work? Well it simply doesn’t try to fight ‘fair’.

Most lists are interested in realising their own gameplan, this list simply wants to stop their opponent from achieving theirs. Let’s break down the sources of very long range mortal wounds shall we?

• Everblaze Comet
• Slann Stairmaster (I know what I said)
• Longstrikes
• Celestant Prime-Time

That’s not even factoring in the medium range mortal wounds in the Dracothian Guard and Stormdrakes. This all adds up to *just* enough frontline to contest objectives and get some primary points, while pummelling their opponent’s support pieces and damage output capability such that they cannot effectively fight after the first few rounds.

Does it have weaknesses? Of course – it’ll struggle against lists that don’t really rely on synergy to function – think Nurgle lists that just kind of act as a series of independent operators. But it’s got serious game.

Matt Nguyen – Beasts of Chaos: Allherd – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Spicy spellcasting and an Incarnate

Thoughts

The thing that stands out here primarily is simply the lack of Dragon Ogors – while there is certainly some room to apply your own creativity to BoC lists, Drogors had risen to the top as the most cost effective and versatile of the ‘battleline piece to buff to high heaven’ core of 2022 BoC lists. That said, Tzaangors can put out a truly appalling number of attacks in their own right, and 30 in Expert Conquerors represents a tremendous challenge for many armies to shift off a central point.

The other element here that’s interesting (no not the Incarnate) is the endless spells – they give access to fights last effects, as well as the ability to shut off Rally and Inspiring Presence. In a meta that increasingly loves it’s resilient tarpits that rally on 4+, access to these kind of effects is a big equalizer.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Roberto Campos-McDonald – Sylvaneth: A fairly typical Spellsinger Warsong list with 6 Scythe Kurnoth hunters making up it’s primary hammer
• 4th – Noe Aquino – Lumineth Realm Lords: New Lumineth make a splash with this Helon list that wants to flirt near danger with 2 Hurakans and 50 Sentinels in order to absolutely obliterate stuff
• 5th – Kyle Calip – Nighthaunt: Double Kruciator hero hammer that goes largely MSU on it’s infantry in order to afford Kurdos, a Spiteful Spirit/Lingering Spirit KoS and Spirit Hosts to protect them
• 6th – Aaron Newbom – Big Waaagh: See Showdown
• 7th – Benjamin Hosking – Slaves to Darkness: An utterly mad Ravagers list with 40 Chaos Warriors presenting 2 very tough anvils; supported by a whole bunch of mortal heroes to keep cultists appearing on the board to run interference
• 8th – Alec Jerome – Nurgle: It’s Pusgoyles, but not as you know them… oh wait yes it is, lot’s of them with a Maggoth lord. Siggy is a neat ally inclusion though!

Quest of Champions Final

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on October 22 2022. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

David Wymer – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Fly spam
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vs.

Freddie Leggett – Gavespawn: Drogor Spam
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Result

Gavespawn Victory – 629 – 20

Thoughts

Yikes… this is a bit of a grim summation of the AoS metagame at the moment. Freddie has opted for Drogors and his list, and they’re quite well setup to just slowly grind through the wall of flies that David is bringing.

Helping protect these Drogors long enough to get a successful charge off and do their damage are the Centigors, that represent a very cost effective set of 5 cavalry bases which the Sphiranx can hide behind. David can charge the front line, but could end up eating through little more than forward screens and then facing a subsequent turn of combats where one of is bigger units is forced to fight at the end of the combat phase.

Freddie Leggett – Gavespawn – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Drogors goodstuff

Thoughts

There’s a mascot Cygor in here (I assume entirely as a troll and for the occasional moments where they spike some dice and bury a foot wizard 6 feet under), but much of what is here is fairly typical. Bestigors are a good hammer in an army of good hammers, and the Jabberslythe provides a useful Monstrous Rampage to lower a unit’s save by 1 or 2 to crack high save stacking nonsense.

Beyond that… this is fairly standard? The core of Drogors are here and we’ve discussed the utter value that are Centigors above, but this is just a well tuned list with a few cute inclusions because Freddie Leggett is a delightful menace.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Toby Meadows – Slaves to Darkness: Archaon and pals! Pretty standard combo of Iron Golems, Varanguard and buffing pieces
• 3rd – Mike Stewart – Seraphon: Pretty standard Thunder Lizards good stuff, with 10 Saurus Knights as a concession to the nerf Scaly Skin took this year
• 4th – David Wymer – Nurgle: See Showdown
• 5th – Ross Mason – Nurgle: Pusgoyle spam with a subtheme of 4 Beasts of Nurgle and 20 Rotmire Creed for disease spreading shenanigans

Wrap Up

Give Battlescroll please GW… the community thirsts.

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.