Three events this week, all allowing the SBGL and OBR books – a furious release schedule has meant that as I’ve mentioned before the metagame has been constantly evolving and changing. There’s very little I would described as settled and things might not change until after the Seraphon book is out and GW turns its focus to the new 40k edition.

Mancunian Carnage (Spring)

73-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Stockport, England on May 20 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Stats & Ladders. Note that this event used the 20-0 differential system to weight your score based on DIFFERENCE in victory points, not total. I went, going 3-2 and having a blast – thoroughly recommend Mancunian Carnage to any and all AOS wargamers in the UK.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Russell Veal – Ossiarch Bonereapers
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vs.

Mathew Davies – Sylvaneth:
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Thoughts

Aura of Sterility – for when you absolutely positively *need* to significantly compromise your opponent’s ability to shoot you, accept no substitute. This little command trait causes shooting attacks to friendly units WW 12″ of the general to be penalized with -1 to hit and wound. Which means that unless said shooting is either stacking bonuses very high, or is mortal wound shooting that just needs unmodified 5s/6s… it’s going to get severely diminished.

Enter Mathew’s list, which revolves around shooting at long range with low dice quantity, damage 2 shooting. Did I mention that Petrifex Elite now deducts 1 damage from attacks made against all those Immortis Guard and Stalkers? This is about as lopsided a matchup as I’ve seen in quite some time.

Result

Ossiarch Bonereapers Victory – 18-2

Russell Veal – Ossiarch Bonereapers – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Tuff Stuff

Thoughts

Welcome to the new face of the metagame – an army that isn’t so much worried about directly shutting down what *you’re* doing, so much as being capable of weathering it all, shrugging it off and grinding you down into fine bonemeal. Between Katakros, Arkhan and the Boneshaper with the Key, it’s possible to put up to 4 models back into an Immortis Guard or Necropolis Stalker unit. Now consider how difficult it is to actually kill one of these models thanks to the dizzying array of defensive buffs they have access to (4+ ward against mortals spell, 5+ ward command ability, Katakros’ +1 save command ability, mystic shield, AOD etc…) combined with Petrifex Elite giving them the scaly skin effect that came to dominate so much of the metagame when Seraphon were at the height of their powers – yes it’s limited to just the Stalkers and Immortis… but when they’re pretty much the best units in the book anyway you don’t care.

That’s not to say the book doesn’t have it’s weaknesses – it’s Battle Tactic selection isn’t the greatest, and they struggle a little bit with objective control when they are spread out and the army can’t just blob up in the center.. but like SBGL they are in rare company as a melee army that can absolutely weather the gatekeeping shooting of all the KO we’re seeing running around and come out the other side with most of their army intact.

Farran Key – Soulblight Gravelords – 2nd Place

The List

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Archetype

LoB pressure/board control

Thoughts

It was almost like I was foreshadowing this earlier – the other death book that came out at the same time is just as capable of weathering the books that came before thanks to some incredible battle traits and rules. Neferata for example lets you redeploy 3 of your units anywhere in your territory after deployment has finished – without the typical 9″ from enemy territory restriction. What does this mean in practice? Well in certain battle plans you can really control board space before the game has even begun, restricting your opponent’s ability to move, teleport and get access to the armies core castle.

And what a Core it is – access to two forms of Ethereal (Cloak of Mist and Shadows on VLOZD, Neferata’s spell) and two additional hammer units in the Grave Guard (who can hide in a grave site to avoid being shot at) and the Blood Knights give this army some serious punch.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Mike Stewart – Fyreslayers: Triple Flamekeepers and 70 Vulkite Berzerkers – not a Hearthguard in sight
• 4th – Owen Jackson – Kharadron Overlords: One of Wales’ nicest wargamers with one of AoS’ most divisive armies – 30 Thunderers, Ironclad + Bridge
• 5th – Brad Walsh – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Triple Maggoth lord and 40 Rotmire Creed with a Cockatrice to give the army a nasty edge against other melee armies (shoutout to a fellow club member – well done Brad!)
• 6th – Matt Lyons – Ossiarch Bonereapers: A mixed OBR list that uses some of the other spicy units in the book – Vokmortian, the Crawlers
• 7th – David Jack – Lumineth Realm-lords: The standard Helon teclis shell but with no Rune of Petrification and instead Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws
• 8th – James Field – Sons of Behemat: Considered by many to be the hero of the weekend – this triple Gatebreaker list (+ 2 mini gargants) went up against KO 4 times and went 3-1 in those games

LoonShine Noches

37-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Tijuana, B.C. MX on May 20 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Ian McAleese – Kharadron Overlords:
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vs.

Shane Lambert – Guild of Summoners:
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Thoughts

An interesting spin on the typical KO core as this list foregoes Thunderers entirely for a lot of Skywardens and even some Stormdrake Guard. That said, the Tzeentch list is also a little unusual, bringing a Mutileth Vortex Beast and 6 foot Enlightened.

While I thematically love the angle that Ian has gone for here with the melee skewed list, it’s not a particularly high wound density army and Tzeentch are set up well to pick apart those lists with the sheer wealth of mortal wound spells they have access to. 9 Skywardens are nearly 400 points for 18 wounds, meaning if you do 5 mortal wounds or more to them that’s already 100 points of the army dead… which is risky business.

Result

Guild of Summoners Victory – 18 – 14

Shane Lambert – Guild of Summoners – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Chicken Farm

Thoughts

It’s the same core we’ve seen a fair amount since the books release – a farm of spellcasting units that generate summoning points to put 2-3 Lords of Change into play over the first three battle rounds. It’s got a number of nasty spells that give it control options against common faction combos, as well as excellent long range mortal wound output that can pick apart elite armies. It can struggle a little into armies that have spell ignores or sheer wound efficiency, or even just very hyper aggressive lists that can crack the castle turn one… but there aren’t that many of those armies out there and Tzeentch will continue to perform well until that changes.

Gareth Thomas – Reapers of Vengeance – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Bloodthirsters

Thoughts

I love how this list is formatted? While it’s not correct from a formatting perspective (you have to take it on good faith that those options are legal and not made up), giving your opponent the lowdown of what enhancements your army has written from the perspective of the actual effect rather than the name is good shorthand.

Anyway, as for the army itself, Khorne has been seeing a lot more variety than usual as it’s got quite a wide army in terms of options and there’s a lot of hot swapping that can be done to tailor the list for your local meta. This list wants to protect and deliver Skarbrand and the Bloodthirsters into your face, while farming blood tithe from it’s random chaff and killing enemy heroes for uses of Murderlust and/or summoning.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Taran Birk – Khorne: A little less Bloodthirsteriness, a little more Skull Cannons
• 4th – Kyle Calip – Soulblight Gravelords: A summonable heavy LoN list – 80 Zombies, 30 Skeletons and a bunch of support pieces to make them sing
• 5th – Ian McAleese – Kharadron Overlords: See showdown

HWP Bloody Beach GT

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Plantation, Florida US on May 20 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Karl Rohr – Reapers of Vengeance:
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vs.

Matthew Powell – Barak-Zilfin:
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Thoughts

A classic melee vs shooting archetype showdown… which is bad news for Khorne as the army is going to have a hard time getting to those Thunderers in the Ironclad and they are more than capable of blowing up the Bloodthirsters and leaving that Khorne army with little more than the Incarnate in the way of meaningful units.

Result

Barak-Zilfin Victory – 36 – 6

Matthew Powell – Barak-Zilfin – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

An’ if that don’t work? Use more Gun

Thoughts

It’s a little less all in than the other KO shooting lists, only running 15 Thunderers and using those spare points to bring some Endrinriggers and a Frigate to give the army a better time of mobility for the long game. When Thunderers inevitably get nerfed this is the sort of shell I can see being used (perhaps shaving the Codewright or 3 Endrinriggers to make room) as it can absorb the points adjustments a little better.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Curtis Hotaling – Glogg’s Megamob: 18 Rockgut Troggoths came to smash face and take an exam… and it’s not like they can read
• 3rd – Whitney Fairchild – Soulblight Gravelords: The standard LoB build – Nefe + VLOZD + VL, 30 Skeletons, 20 GG and 10 Blood Knights
• 4th – Joss Wheeler – Stormcast Eternals: 4 Knight-Vexillors and Krondys with a bunch of Annihilators
• 5th – Alexander Hemedinger – Ossiarch Bonereapers: Not a single Stalker or Immortis Guard here – 40 Mortek Guard and a Harvester anchor this list

Wrap Up

What do you guys think? I’m curious to take note of the feelings of the player base on how the competitive scene is at the moment. After speaking to players over the weekend it definitely feels to *me* like things are a bit wild at the moment with the sheer amount of armies at the moment, with armies that are more concerned about what THEY’RE doing than their opponents finding a little more success as a result. I was tailoring my Slaanesh list to deal with Gitz and KO and then got blindsided by OBR armies that present entirely different challenges. My situation isn’t unique, and I’m keen to hear other people’s stories – let me know in the comments below!