Two tournaments to cover this week with a truly impressively mad one at the end. No KO in the showdown this week, nor is there any Khorne or Slaanesh. This is all about some of the older books of the edition, so let’s get stuck in.

The Icebreaker GT 2023 – Renegade Wargaming

39-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Roseville, MN US on April 15 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Isaiah Ramczyk – Skaventide: Ninjas, ninjas everywhere
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Joe Krier – Disciples of Tzeentch: Kairic spellcasting
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

The Kairic list is one archetype we’ve seen before, as it uses Kairics and their warscroll spell to inflate their spellcasting count to generate fate points for summoning. The Cockatrice is an interesting inclusion as it gives the castle a bit of resilience against combat armies, if somewhat unreliable. That said, what’s interesting here is the Skaven list.

Most of the army can deploy off board with the exception of the Deathmasters and the Verminlord (I do wonder if the player is aware Deathmasters can’t hide inside Gutter Runners), meaning you can give away first turn if you have priority and present very little for your opponent to actually attack. When his first turn arrives, all the gutter runners descend like a swarm near terrain features and unleash a very respectable amount of mortal wound shooting and then subsequently punch surprisingly hard in combat on the charge.

It’s a very skewed list that will give some armies fits and others a great deal of issue. In this instance, it would seem that the sheer volume of turn one damage was a little too much for this Tzeentch castle.

Result

Victory – 27 – 14

Isaiah Ramczyk – Skaventide – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Just roll sixes

Thoughts

One other thing worth noting here is the Verminlord – with the Shadow Magic Trinket and the Devious Adversary command trait, it’s capable of becoming strikes-fist once per game in any combat phase, and if it DOES fight first in a combat phase it gains +2 attacks, which is quite significant when combined with flaming weapon and it’s warscroll command ability for a total of 8 attacks hitting and wounding on 2s, rend 3 damage 3. That’s the kind of consistent damage that will lift many hammers in the game in one activation.

Chris Prose – Glogg’s Megamob – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Troggs and Moonclan

Thoughts

It’s a good sign of internal balance that Gits lift have found success not just with skewed lists, but also with interesting blends of archetypes. In this case, Chris has combined Moon clan grots hiding a devastating brick of 10 fanatics (look up their warscroll, they hit extremely hard) with the reliable damage and tankiness of the troggs. Gits buffs largely don’t care about keyword anymore, giving it the ability to pivot and capitalise on versatility in a way that other armies are unable to.

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Thomas Wurzinger – Kharadron Overlords: A blend of melee and shooting in this Barak-Nar force anchored around Brokk, 2 Frigates and 6 Endrinriggers
• 4th – Patrick Ottolino – Lumineth Realmlords: Helon Teclis + Sentinels lives on
• 5th – Joe Krier – Disciples of Tzeentch: See showdown
• 6th – Daniel Dowell – Slaves to Darkness: A KOTET list running a total of 12 Varanguard, 10 Knights and a Karkadrak for activation shenanigans
• 7th – Dave Bonselaar – Kruleboyz: Kruleboyz! 18 Boltboyz in Big Yellerz make the damage output, 30 Gutrippaz the front line in this triumph against the odds

Hampshire GT

82-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Barton Cross, England on April 15 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Stats and Ladders.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Ricky Mee – Fyreslayers: Vulkite Castle
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Maxwell Edwards – Lumineth Realmlords: Helon Teclis
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Thoughts

So how do you overcome Teclis and Sentinels? Well hero protection, a shit load of redundancy and beef is certainly one way to approach it. Lumineth lists want to scalpel apart your army, and certainly don’t want to deal with large bricks of infantry that rally back easily, are difficult to fully kill and actually get stronger as they get killed thanks to the Flamekeepers. Looking at the lopsided score it looks like this one was over from the early goings, as the Dwarves got onto the objectives and never really ceded control of them, jumping way ahead on primary scoring.

Result

Fyreslayers Victory – 27 – 6

Ricky Mee – Fyreslayers – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Flamekeeper Castle

Thoughts

Not being reliant on spellcasting, and having both anti-magic (Nulsidian Icon) and exceptional grinding capability really positions Fyreslayers well against many of the armies best threats at the moment – Lumineth, Gitz and KO. Not too much to say about this one other than I wonder what happens to the army when this season rotates out!

Russell Veal – Ogor Mawtribes – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Beasts and Blastin’

Thoughts

Another approach to the meta problems at the moment is just immediate pressure to take board control. The Mournfang pack and the heroes can get in your opponent’s castle turn one and pin them in place, while the Ironblasters do their dirty work behind and you hope to just get way ahead early and capitalise on a strong start to snowball into the lategame.

Scalpel armies don’t really want to deal with 30+ wounds of 5+ ward beef in their face, and Russell Veal has spent the whole season refining this Ogor list to great effect.

Darren Watson – Fyreslayers – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Dudes Rocking

Thoughts

Did you know the Grimwrath Berzerker is not a leader? It fits in the Other slot despite being a hero, and means you can cram a lot of them into an army. Darren has gone completely mad in the best way with this list, presenting a ton of angry dudes who can abuse the extra rend rune twice a game (thanks to Volatile Brazier) for a bunch of rend 3 damage that will fight, if they die they fight again, if they fight and they haven’t died they fight again at the end of the combat phase.

Yeah it’s not the highest raw output, but the season loves Galletian Champion and he has bucket loads of them, and it’s very difficult to actually allocate your attacks against 2 or 3 of these in your face without overkilling and wasting attacks or failing to outright kill the angry dwarf in the first place. A wonderful army that seeks to ask new questions rather than worry about silly things like answers.

Wrap Up

That’s it! I’m pressed for time this week so decided to focus on just the 3 5-0 lists for Hampshire which I’m sure you’ll appreciate was worth it considering the insanity of that last list. See you next week!

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