Last weekend saw the inaugural Goonhammer Open Age of Sigmar event, as part of the wider GHO event held at De Montford Students’ Union in Leicester. As a Goonhammer contributor who is (reasonably) local, I was on the hook to be the spare player for AoS, and a drop meant that I got the chance to step in for the entire tournament.
16 people showed up to the AoS event, and I think it’s worth mentioning straight off that the vibes were impeccable all weekend. The entire crowd came together between games to chat about their experiences, check in on each other, and just generally soak in the atmosphere. I’m always a big fan of Sigmar events for being a touch more chill than some other systems I’ve played, but this really hammered home for me what a great crowd most events draw in.
The list
Rich’s list - click to expand
- Army Faction: Orruk Warclans- Army Type: Ironjawz - Subfaction: Bloodtoofs - Grand Strategy: Waaagh! - Triumph: Inspired LEADERS Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90) - General - Command Traits: Shaman of the Chilled Lands - Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Megaboss on Maw-krusha (450)* - Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist - Artefacts of Power: Destroyer - Mount Traits: Fast ’Un Orruk Warchanter (120)* - Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat Orruk Warchanter (120)* - Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat BATTLELINE Orruk Ardboys (200)* - Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer - Ardboy Boss - Ardboy Choppas Orruk Brutes (280)* - Brute Boss - Boss Choppa - Jagged Gore Hakkas - 2 x Gore-choppa Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)* - Gore-grunta Boss - Jagged Gore-hacka BEHEMOTH Maw-grunta Gougers (160)* OTHER Brute Ragerz (200)* - 3 x Chain-smasha - 3 x Mighty Gore-hacka CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment TOTAL POINTS: 1960/2000 Drops: 2
This is pretty much the exact same list that I took to the Brotherhood team tournament in January, only swapping out the command trait (Shaman of the Chilled Lands instead of Master of Magic) and switching both Warchanters to the Get ‘Em Beat for a bit of flexibility.
Ironjawz don’t feel in the best place right now, but I’ve built up a bit of experience with them and am happy with the way I’m piloting the list for the most part. There is definitely a bit of dead weight; the Ardboyz and Maw-Grunta Gouger would probably be better as more Brutes or Gore-Gruntas, but I tend to build armies for visual impact as well as tabletop performance and I do love the new range of models.
Strategically, this is not a smart list. Generally, my goal is to set the Weirdnob as far back as possible, with a unit in teleport range, then give away first turn, the Battle Regiment meaning I have that choice most of the time. Most people don’t seem to want to charge into a line of heavily-armoured orruks, which suits me fine. On my first turn, I try to score Magical Dominance and (scenario dependent) set up for Surround and Destroy, and often launch the Maw-Krusha, Ragerz, Gouger, or some combination of all three forwards on an alpha strike. I hope to get the double into turn two to do enough damage to seal the game there.
Where this falls apart a bit is on unit count; holding things back to score Surround can be a real hampering of combat power, and ideally you want all of your units to hit on the same turn to maximise the extra rend from the Waaagh!. There are plenty of things that can chew through Ironjawz in an attritional fight, and generally getting bogged down is a quick route to a loss. The sub-faction ability for the Bloodtoofs should help to keep the Gore-Gruntas mobile and causing trouble.
Friday
I arrived at the venue to find plenty of Goonhammer staff and friends already hard at work setting up for the various tournaments planned for the weekend. Setting up eight AoS tables to match the terrain maps from the pack was a fairly quick affair, which left us free to help with setting up thematic Heresy tables and measuring out precise terrain maps for 40k using the great themed terrain sets from Bandua Wargaming.
With tables all set and ready, we decamped to local pizza place dough WHAT for some fantastic pies. This place is known for serving both Neapolitan-style pizza and deep dish Chicago-style under one roof, with any pizza available as either base. Soggy and I were quite intimidated by the deep dish, so we decided to go 50/50 on a Neapolitan margerita and the deep dish with nduja, onions and fresh chilli. Both pizzas were fantastic – I’d question the true “Chicago-style” authenticity of the deep dish given that it was a bit doughier than the usual pie-crust style, and the cheese was on top rather than under the sauce, but it was nevertheless absolutely delicious and I’d order it again in a heartbeat.
Pizza cravings sated, it was time to head back to the team AirBnB for a chat, a beer, and a good night’s sleep ready for the weekend’s activities.
Saturday (Day 1)
We arrived at the venue bright and early at 8am, ready to welcome the players. I knew over half of the players in the event, either from previous events or via the Rollmodels Discord server, so it was great to catch up with people as they arrived. Pairings had been announced the night before, and there hadn’t been any more drops, so we headed to our tables to get going.
Game 1 – The Icefields vs Aidan’s Skaven
Aidan’s list - click to expand
- Army Faction: Skaven - Grand Strategy: Warpstone Weaponmasters - Triumph: Indomitable LEADERS Plague Priest (100)* - Prayers: Disease-disease! Grey Seer On Screaming Bell (240)* - Spells: Scorch, Skitterleap Grey Seer (110)** - Spells: Death Frenzy, Hoarfrost Lord Skreech Verminking (370)** Clawlord (100)** Warlock Engineer (90)** - General - Command Traits: Deranged Inventor - Artefacts of Power: The Brass Orb - Spells: Merciless Blizzard, More-more-more Warp Power! BATTLELINE Clanrats (200)* - Rusty Spear Clanrats (100)* - Rusty Blade Stormfiends (310)* - Windlaunchers and Clubbing Blows - Shock Gauntlets and Warpstone-laced Armour - Grinderfists ARTILLERY Warp Lightning Cannon (130) Warp Lightning Cannon (130)* OTHER Ratling Gun (60) TERRAIN 1 x Gnawhole (0) 1 x Gnawhole (0) 1 x Gnawhole (0) CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Command Entourage - Magnificent TOTAL POINTS: 1940/2000
I haven’t played against this kind of mixed Skaven list for quite a long time, but have previously played them quite a lot when they were on top of the meta, so I knew roughly what to expect here. The Icefields should be quite a tough scenario for me, with six objectives to hold and the Skaven able to get behind me with teleports and Gnawholes. Unfortunately for Aidan, he made what turned out to be a critical mistake in deployment, setting up Skreech in amongst the large unit of Clanrats but with only a single line of rats in front of him, base-to-base.
Spotting this and knowing that Skreech was probably his biggest threat, I opted to take the first turn and charged the Maw-Krusha in, burning his once-per-game artefact to make sure Skreech died. He did, and on the other flank the unit of Gore-Gruntas killed 20 Clanrats and also made a clutch end of combat phase charge into one of Aidan’s Warp Lightning Cannons, tying it up. I scored max primary plus Magical Dominance, and would score max primary every turn for the rest of the game.
On his turn one, Aidan teleported a character into my back lines, along with sending the unit of Stormfiends through a Gnawhole. The Stormfiends managed to shoot off my general, but Aidan was lacking in primary scoring, only grabbing one point. Winning the priority into round two, I took the turn and scored reprisal against the Stormfiends with a unit of buffed Ardboyz, and continued to clean up in Aidan’s backfield. I max scored the rest of the game except for dropping one battle tactic – I couldn’t score Led Into the Maelstrom as my units killed things too efficiently!
The game ended in a 26-5 victory to me. Aidan was a great opponent who I’d happily play again, and it felt a bit rough to beat him so comprehensively in game one. Still, I was happy to get a win under my belt early on.
Game 2 – Spring the Trap vs Brett’s Khorne
Brett’s list - click to expand
- Army Faction: Blades of Khorne - Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance - Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery LEADERS Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (300) - General - Command Traits: Firebrand - Artefacts of Power: Halo of Blood - Prayers: Bloodbind Skarbrand (380)* Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (310)** - Artefacts of Power: Ar’gath, the King of Blades Bloodmaster (110)** - Prayers: Killer Instinct - Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon Bloodmaster (110)** - Prayers: Unholy Flames BATTLELINE Bloodletters (540)* - Bloodreaper - 2 x Icon Bearer - 2 x Hornblower Flesh Hounds (100)* Flesh Hounds (100)* ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50) CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Command Entourage - Magnificent TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Khorne is an army that I always feel quite tentative about playing. I feel like I’ve learned how to deal with them quite well, but ultimately they can put out quite a lot of mortal wounds and that is something that Ironjawz are absolutely not equipped to deal with. I knew that taking down the Bloodthirsters would be my big challenge here, so that I could outmaneuver the rest of the list.
We both deployed in a reasonably tight formation, screening with infantry units, and I opted to take the Ragerz off the board using the scenario rule before giving Brett the first turn. Brett played very conservatively, edging his castle up onto the middle objective and sending one unit of Flesh Hounds wide to hold another and secure max primary. Doing this required him to burn a battle tactic, opting to choose Magical Dominance knowing he wouldn’t score it.
In return, I chose (and scored) Magical Dominance too, opting to teleport the unit of Gore-Gruntas wide to hold an uncontested objective. This turned out to be a mistake, as we’ll see in a moment. Elsewhere, I opted to sent the Brutes onto the wide objective to clear the Flesh Hounds, charged the Ardboyz up the middle to clear the central Flesh Hound screen and tie up the 30 Bloodletters, and charged the Gouger in to the Bloodletters to kill a few and fight into Skarbrand, doing something like 9 wounds to him. Skarbrand nuked the pig in return, but I was quite pleased to score a full 5 points turn one, and go into a double turn with a Krusha in reserve and Skarbrand easily killable.
Of course, I didn’t get the turn, and I paid for it big time. Skarbrand charged the big unit of Gruntas and completely eliminated them before they did a single thing; in hindsight, I should have kept them back and cast something like Mystic Shield T1, and only teleported them once I knew I had the turn. The other two Thirsters went wide to engage the Brutes, killing about half of the unit with the horrible combo of the fights first artefact and the chain activation warscroll ability. In my turn two, I opted to attempt Dat’s Our Turf Now (2 units within 3” of the centre) but Brett cleverly used a Bloodtithe ability to shuffle the Bloodletters forwards and deny me the position before I’d even had a chance to move. The Krusha had to go wide to finish off Skarbrand, taking it out of position, and on the other flank the Brutes finished off the non fights-first Thirster but, devastatingly, the other one managed to kill the deep-striking Ragerz before they ever got to swing. I was behind on primary and missed my tactic, for a great 1 point round.
The rest of the game was basically Brett chewing through my units – I charged the Krusha into the Bloodletters but it didn’t kill as many as I hoped, although delightfully it did do a massive 6 MW stomp to fully murder a Bloodmaster. It got bogged down in the daemons over the next couple of turns and died for minimal impact, and I didn’t have the pieces on the board to control anything, leading to a 24-10 loss. A big part of this game was me getting in my own head about Khorne, mixing up warscroll and artefact abilities and completely failing to grasp what Skarbrand did despite having played him a ton of times before. Despite having to deal with my post-lunch madness, Brett was a great opponent and piloted his list well, and again is someone I’d happily play at future events!
Game 3 – Lines of Communication vs Colm’s Flesh-Eater Courts
Colm’s list - click to expand
Allegiance: Flesh Eater Courts Grand Court: Hollowmourne Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant Triumph: Inspired LEADER 1 x Abhorrant Archregent (150) * - General - Shaman of The Chilled Lands - Spells: Deranged Transformation 1 x Abhorrant Gorewarden (150) * - Spells: Deranged Transformation 1 x Crypt Ghast Courtier (80) ** - Artefact: Charnel Vestments - Prayer: Charnel Conviction 1 x Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (The Sternieste Garrison) (630) BATTLELINE 9 x Crypt Horrors (390) ** - reinforced x 2 - Crypt Haunter 3 x Crypt Horrors (130) ** - Crypt Haunter 20 x Crypt Ghouls (160) - Crypt Ghast UNITS 6 x Morbheg Knights (300) - Reinforced - Champion of Morbheg - Standard Bearer - Hornblower 10 x Grave Guard (The Sternieste Garrison) ( 0 ) - Great Wight Blades - Seneschal - Standard Bearer - Hornblower 3 x Fell Bats (The Sternieste Garrison) ( 0 ) 3 x Fell Bats (The Sternieste Garrison) ( 0 ) TERRAIN 1 x Charnel Throne ( 0 ) CORE BATTALIONS: *Andtorian Acolytes **Witch-funders of Andtor Total: 1990/2000 Wounds: 146 Drops: 8
Colm showed up to the event with an interesting variation on the usual FEC lists we’ve been seeing, and had painted the whole thing in the previous week (including a great converted Mannfred) to a really nice standard! I do love a frantic hobby project. I’m working on a FEC army myself but have not yet played them, so I was keen to see how they do on the table.
As usual, we both castled up in deployment and I gave away the first turn. Colm scored Magical Dominance and charged a couple of units into my lines, including the Grave Guard from the Sternieste Garrison. Their buffs after the teleport make the Grave Guard a scary prospect, but Colm also charged my Brutes with his Morbheg Knights and chose to fight there first, meaning that my Gruntas were able to kill all but one of the skeletons before they ever got to attack. The one remaining did kill an entire pig all by itself though, so I’m definitely glad I managed to clear them up. In return the Krusha ate the Knights on my turn, and I started charging units forwards. I missed out on Magical Dominance thanks to an unbind from Colm, but did secure a full 3 points on primary.
Going into battle round two I thought to myself that I’d actually like to give the turn away for once, as Colm’s screens were still mostly intact and I could have cleared them with combat in his turn to give me a productive turn two charging his back line. So of course he won the roll and made me take the double turn. The rest of the game was a bit of a blur due to it being the third of the day, but we traded units back and forth, both only scoring about half of our battle tactics but with me outpacing him on primary scoring. In the end, Colm managed to deny my grand strategy and score his own but it wasn’t quite enough, leaving me on a 19-15 victory.
We did have a couple of interesting etiquette moments in this game – we’d discussed our intent about counting on wound markers and playing by intent at the start of the game, as is good practice. During one round, I found the wounds on a Horror not matching what I expected based on the previous turn, having specifically remembered being 1 wound off of killing the unit. Having chosen to do Magical Mayhem to finish it off with an Arcane Bolt and free up a unit, we had a moment of friction realising that the marker indicated it had 3 wounds remaining (1 taken) instead of 1 remaining. Luckily for me Colm agreed that the “all but one wound” scenario from the previous combat sounded familiar and we resolved it that way – I hope that that was genuine and not just conflict avoidance, as I always hope to be on the same page as my opponent and I’d rather have talked it through more if needed. Colm was very precise with his own intent, whilst being very generous with me, which led to him denying himself a couple of take-backs that I would happily have let him have, which cost him a battle tactic at one point. Ultimately I can’t do anything to control that, it’s up to individuals how harsh they are with themselves I suppose.
Still, Colm was a lovely opponent, to the point that we had a great pre-game chat that lasted way too long and ended up overrunning at the other end of the game. Another one for the folder of “would love to play against again” that I was amassing all weekend.
Saturday’s dinner was an Indian delight at fully vegetarian/vegan restaurant Herb. I think this is a regular haunt of some of the Goonhammer team by now, but it was my first time trying it and I was pretty impressed. Most of us opted for some variation of the thali, a spread of mini curries in several styles. Fit to burst, there was just time for a drink with some of the Rollmodels crew before heading back to the accommodation to sleep. At this point I was definitely happy to be 2-1 after day one, something that doesn’t usually happen.
Sunday (Day 2)
Sunday morning was a later start for Sigmar, meaning that Bair and I got a nice lie-in at the AirBnB whilst the 40k team had to head over to the venue much earlier. A Tim Hortons breakfast wrap delivered to the venue set me up well for another day of gaming. I think it’s probably a good thing that my local Tim’s is a train ride away, or I’d have suffered from death by Ice-Capp by now.
Game 4 – Fountains of Frost vs Jack’s Flesh-Eater Courts
Jack’s list - click to expand
Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts - Army Subfaction: Hollowmourne - Grand Strategy: Defend the Throne - Triumphs: Indomitable LEADER 1 x Abhorrant Archregent (150)* - Spells: Deranged Transformation 1 x Abhorrant Archregent (150)* - Spells: Hoarfrost 1 x Abhorrant Gorewarden (150)** - Spells: Merciless Blizzard 1 x Marrowscroll Herald (100)*** - General - Command Traits: Cruel Taskmaster - Artefacts: Charnel Vestments - Prayers: Charnel Conviction BATTLELINE 9 x Crypt Horrors (130)*** - Crypt Haunter 40 x Crypt Ghouls (160)*** - Crypt Ghast 20 x Crypt Ghouls (160)*** ENDLESS SPELL 1 x Chalice of Ushoran (50) OTHER 3 x Morbheg Knights (150)** - Standard Bearer - Champion of Morbheg - Hornblower 3 x Morbheg Knights (150)** - Standard Bearer - Champion of Morbheg - Hornblower 20 x Royal Beastflayers (110)*** CORE BATTALIONS: *Andtorian Acolytes **Battle Regiment ***Battle Regiment TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)
The main thing I was scared about in Jack’s list was the big block of Royal Beastflayers, and it turns out I was right to be. However I also had my own stupidity to contend with, as I cleverly deployed four units contesting the central objective in my own territory and took a load of mortal wounds before I even got a turn. Very smart.
As usual, Jack castled up, I deployed fairly conservatively, and I gave away the first turn. Jack moved up a touch and scored Magical Dominance, getting buffs off. In return, I scored Magical Dominance too, and failed to kill many Beastflayers with Ragerz and Ardboyz. We both scored 2 points for holding our home objectives, and went into round two tied 4-4. I got the double and committed, retreating the units from turn one and charging with the Krusha and Gruntas into his wide backline objectives to take them and score Bait and Trap. The pigs cleaned up a unit of ghouls, but the Krusha failed to do the same with a reinforced unit, and I then learned how effective the Chalice of Ushoran can be, pouring ghouls back into the unit almost as fast as I could kill them. The Maw-Krusha fought this unit of ghouls for most of the game, eventually killing them all and clearing a charge lane to the Charnel Throne, before I realised that Jack could resummon them and re-charge the Krusha before I’d have a chance to get there.
Jack had a pretty catastrophic turn two, failing almost all of his spells and having to commit more tentatively than he would have liked as a result. He still scored Led into the Maelstrom and two primary points to keep the game close, and as the turns advanced the game shifted slightly in his favour. A big unit of nine Horrors returned and got a great charge to tie me up, and his Gorewarden and some Morbhegs dropped onto my back objectives to make me fight on two fronts. I ultimately did get the Krusha to the throne, but made a critical error – instead of piling around and killing both characters near it, which would have guaranteed me denying Jack’s grand strategy, I instead focused one of them down and tried to Smash to Rubble, which failed. Jack then won priority and got the Beastflayers into the Maw-Krusha, turning off rampages, killing my denial chance.
Had I played that turn smarter and won the turn five priority there was a route to victory here for me, but as it is Jack beat me in a 25-20 loss. Another great opponent and a super fun tactical game. This as well as the game versus Colm on day 1 has really solidified my interest in getting FEC onto the table as soon as possible, they’re super fun and themey whilst also seeming quite powerful.
With the record tied up 2-2, game five was going to be important for coming away on a positive record.
Game 5 – No Reward Without Risk vs James’ Seraphon
James’ list - click to expand
- Army Faction: Seraphon - Army Type: Coalesced - Subfaction: Koatl's Claw - Grand Strategy: Overshadow LEADERS Saurus Scar-Veteran on Aggradon (160)* - General - Command Traits: Vengeful Defender - Relic Celestite Spear - Artefacts of Power: Blade of Realities Skink Starseer (160)** - Spells: Tide of Serpents BATTLELINE Saurus Warriors (180)* - Saurus Warrior Alpha - Icon Bearer - War-drummer - Celestite Spear Aggradon Lancers (380)* - Aggradon Lancer Alpha - Icon Bearer - War-drummer - Celestite Spear Saurus Warriors (180)* - Saurus Warrior Alpha - Icon Bearer - War-drummer - Celestite Spear Aggradon Lancers (380)* - Aggradon Lancer Alpha - Icon Bearer - War-drummer - Celestite Spear Kroxigor Warspawned (170)** - Starfang War-pick Kroxigor Warspawned (170)** - Starfang War-pick BEHEMOTH Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek (180)* ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30) CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Vanguard TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Is there a worse matchup for an Ironjawz list reliant on boosting a bunch of damage 1 attacks to damage 2 than Koatl’s Claw? Probably, but it’s definitely up there. I knew that I had one chance here, which was to put my damage buffs where they wouldn’t be wasted, focus things down one at a time, and pray for some double turns.
James deployed his army fully on the line, so I obliged by tagging his Bastilodon and both Saurus units with the Ardboyz, and deploying most other things close to the line but out of combat. I kept the Ragerz back with the Weirdnob, for some battle tactic scoring/teleport shenanigans. James engaged turn one, charging a unit of 6 Aggradon Lancers into the Brutes, killing all but one, and fighting the Ardboyz with his already engaged stuff. In return, the Krusha managed to kill the whole unit of Aggradons, which surprised us both, and I teleported the Gruntas forwards to score Magical Dominance and engage next turn. On the other flank, the Gouger made a heroic 16” charge to kill most of a unit of Kroxigor. All I needed now was the double turn…
…which I didn’t get. Had I won the turn, the Krusha could have polished off some more Aggradons and I would have felt a lot better about the situation. As it was, James could just collapse onto my army and kill most of it. I managed to salvage Surround and Destroy from turn two, but James was racing ahead on primary and I had lost too many units to compete. I tried a last ditch Blizzard with the Weirdnob to kill some Saurus and open up some possibilities in turn three, but I rolled abysmally and failed to cast it. The game ran away from there, with James maxing score except for one dropped tactic for a 26-9 loss.
Once again, James was a lovely opponent who I’d love to play again, and ultimately it’s always fun to smash melee armies together even if it did go badly for me. It’s so great to be saying this about every single opponent over the weekend, it was truly a new bar in how warm and fuzzy a tournament can make me feel.
Learning
I was really hoping to hit that mystical 3-2 bar that’s been eluding me this weekend, especially after going 2-1 on the first day, but didn’t manage it in the end. 2-3 is still better than my previous result with Ironjawz though, so I’ll take that. I did learn a couple of things along the way:
Army confidence – I really feel quite capable pushing this list around now, which reinforces how important reps, practice and preparation are. I’ll be trying to get more practice games in for the rest of the year when I change lists up.
Dead weight – Those Ardboys need to go. There is nothing they did that couldn’t have been better served by more Brutes or Gore-Gruntas. I feel like the big pig is a bit of a trap too, although it looks so cool and every once in a while it just hits incredibly hard.
Playing to win – Ultimately, listbuilding and playing to win has always been a bit of a hurdle for me to get over, I tend to play it safe by running non-optimal things for some reason; maybe so I have something else to blame, or don’t feel the pressure. But I do find myself wanting to win more, and with some more practice and a slightly tweaked list I could have seen myself going 4-1 in these matchups. Perhaps I should have been playing Big Waaagh this whole time.
Final Thoughts
I was super-happy with how this event went overall, and I hope we’ll get to run some more AoS at future Goonhammer Opens. It was also fun to be the person giving out the prizes, especially as lots of the winners were good friends! I’ve never had such a good source of nice photos with my pals (you can see the winners photos here).
Most of all I came out of the event passionate for Sigmar, and I’ve already booked into some more GT-style events for the rest of the year.
If you’d like to hear an audio description of this event by me and some other players, there should be an episode of my podcast Three and Two out soon covering it in detail, please feel free to check it out.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. And if you want regular updates in your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.
