Just a few precious weeks until everything we have come to love and hate about this current season of AOS Competitive Play is tossed out the door and replaced with the new and shiny. Three events this week, all offering a sort of ‘greatest hits’ look back at what’s been strong not just this month, but in the past three.

The Bristol GT

45-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Stoke Gifford, England United Kingdom on June 24 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Adam Cresswell-Jeal – Pretenders Host:
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vs.

Matthew Gouldesbrough – Legion of Blood:
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Thoughts

My first impressions at looking at these two lists is that they are slightly changed from what is considered ‘the standard build’ for their subfaction. Matthew has the Vengorian Lord instead of some Grave Guard as a tertiary threat (this change adding some extra resiliency to the army), whereas Adam has skipped over the Keeper of Secrets or Be’lakor in favour of some Twinsouls and some allied Cultists units from STD to give the army more of a board presence and a little more utility in close combat.

That said, the extra bodies would not have helped against Matthew’s list, which is better able to kill the Slickblades when they’re split into five man units, and once they are dead there isn’t that much in this list that actually threatens the army (and Spirit Gale/Skeletons can rather handily deal with the Blissbarb Archers).

Result

Legion of Blood Victory – 16 – 4

Matthew Gouldesbrough – Legion of Blood – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Monster Mash

Thoughts

So what is it about the Vengorian Lord that gives the list a bit of resiliency? It’s not as efficient in killing stuff as the Grave Guard, but an innate 3+ save and the ability to worsen the rend of units within 3″ of it means it can jump into a combat with many hammer units in the game and have a good chance of blunting their offensive, especially when combo’d with AOD, Finest Hour or Mystic Shield (big rend unit? just stack the effects!). Matthew’s inclusion of the Vengorian is probably a nod to the mirror match, as well as the Stalkers/Immortis Guard of OBR representing substantial challenges for combat armies that don’t have a good answer to them – the Venga boy covers it.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Aaron Boyhan – Mortis Praetorians: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – Immortis Guard as a core, with Deathriders for mobility (taking advantage of the MP counter charge ability), supported by Mortisan (Key & Aura of Sterility) and Katakros.
• 3rd – Toby Resnick – Grimscuttle: Do not adjust your viewing set – Spiders! Yes there’s Kragnos and Skragrott to help lift the list up, but there’s some honest to goodness Spider Riders and a few giant spiders in this list.
• 4th – Adam Cresswell-Jeal – Pretenders Host: See showdown
• 5th – Jonathon Fisher – Mortis Praetorians: This list still has 6 Immortis Guard, Katakros, a Mortisan and some Deathriders, but it also diversifies a bit with 20 Mortek Guard and a Mortek Crawler
• 6th – Jonathon Hale – Barak-Nar: 25 Thunderers that skips Spell in a Bottle in favour of a Frigate to complement the Ironclad
• 7th – Matt Hall – Legion of Blood: Cutting Neferata from the standard LOB shell allows Matt to bring 60 Zombies and a unit of 20 Deathrattle to better leverage the insanely efficient Battleline SBGL players have access to

Battle to End Alzheimer’s GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Westminster, MD US on June 23 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Position Over Power

James O’Brien – Fangs of Sotek:
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vs.

Charles Wilson – Oakenbrow
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Thoughts

This seems rather unfair – Comet’s Call ignores Line of Sight which means those trees won’t provide any cover for the units as they get pelted with Endless Spells and ranged mortals from the Slann power pair. Bridge allows for some cheeky aggressive use of the Troglodon for targeting purposes, which can then bounce back to safety in the movement phase.

Some armies hard counter to the Starborne mortal wound spam list, but this tree list just isn’t set up well and it lacks diversified threats to really pressure the list early before it can get it’s summoning going.

Result

Fangs of Sotek Victory – 19-1

James O’Brien – Fangs of Sotek – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Mortal Wounds

Thoughts

It’s a skewed list that can thrive against armies that lack good anti magic, but falls over flat against specialised anti magic forces like Null Myriad OBR or Khorne (as well as hyper aggressive alpha strike armies that can get to the inner castle early like Varanguard heavy STD lists).

What it does well is distributed damage to multiple units to force battleshock tests in multiple places, while accumulating large numbers of celestial points for cash in on more meatshields (excuse me, Skinks) as well as bigger, deadlier stuff as points allow. It’s a Gatekeeper army that will thrive or fall apart depending on matchups.

Rye Anderson – Legion of Blood – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Neferata & Pals

Thoughts

Clear, Head Empty. Staying in my lane, thriving. Oh this list? It’s gone for slightly more reliable spellcasting with Cogs and skipped out on Blood Knights in favour of Grave Guard. It’s mostly the same core list we’ve seen dominate for several months now.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – William Hatch – Legion of Blood: There’s a cute Amulet of Screams Wight King combo for a disposable anti-magic dork, otherwise this is standard LOB fare
• 4th – Frank Sylvester – Barak-Nar: 30 Thunderers Ironclad Soulscream Bridge
• 5th – Emma Mangels – Droning Guard: A cheeky Glottkin 4-1 that utilises a Plague Priest with Curse to up the damage output of a big brick of 10 Blightkings, with Plague Drones acting as budget Pusgoyles
• 6th – Adam Lindsey – Boulderhead: Monster trucks! 4 Stonehorns 2 Thundertusks
• 7th – Bill Hennessey – Scarlet Doom: 50 Bladegheists with an Incarnate

Battered Bison GT

32-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Winnipeg, Manitoba CA on June 23 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Jackson Keeley – Helon:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Carl Ong – Barak-Zilfin:
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Thoughts

A shooting mirror that then favours who can destroy the big pieces of the other first. For Lumineth, the aim is to cripple the Ironclad and the 15 Thunderers. For Carl and his KO, it’s kill Teclis and watch the entire house of cards crumple. Voidstone Orb here likely played a key part in breaking the stalemate, allowing him to guarantee the unbind on the 5+ ward aura which then dramatically reduces the armies ability to weather the storm of firepower coming from all those guns.

Result

Barak-Zilfin Victory – 27 – 19

Carl Ong – Barak-Zilfin – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Dakka dakka dakka

Thoughts

Purple Sun makes for an interesting (if risky due to the Sun immediately going wild) change in dynamic for the list, as suddenly units like the Endrinriggers can also contribute meaningful damage at range with their guns, as well as just better chances of breaking through the tough armor saves of the ever-popular Immortis Guard running around at the minute.

The Best of the Rest

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

1. Position – Player Name – Faction:
2. 2nd – Frederic Bigras-Burrogano – Blisterskin Grand Court: Horrors and Ghouls make up the vast majority of this aggressive Galletian list
3. 3rd – Jackson Keeley – Helon: See showdown
4. 4th – James Haagsman – Hammers of Sigmar: 7 Stormdrakes and an Incarnate still thriving in mid 2023
5. 5th – Thurston Hillman – Grinnin’ Blades: Ha! 30 Gutrippaz, 2 Killbows and only 6 Boltboyz. Love the cheeky Killaboss on foot to be a nuisance to kill and the Mirebrute still stands out as an efficient and powerful beatstick in the right circumstances
6. 6th – Tim Veldhuis – Dracothion’s Tail: More Starborne mortal wounds in play here, this one opting for Quicksilver Swords and Soulsnare Shackles in addition to Cogs to help control the board and punch through units with ward saves

Wrap Up

You can look forward to our review of the new GHB this coming saturday, where we’ll be helping set the table and preparing everyone for what to expect over the next 12 months and how you might best take advantage of the changes.