He’s done it again! Tony P delivering the goods, smashing out those elegant Warscroll Builder updates and making everyone’s hobby that little bit better. Legend.

25 years of heavy drinking has atrophied my brain to the point that I can no longer add up in chunks of 500 or keep track of three artefacts, and I wish I was joking. So following on from last week’s rules rundown, and now that we’ve got the tools for the job, let’s get down to business and crank out a few lists.

First Principles

There are two ways you can win games with Gargants:

• Kick the shit out of everything, most likely with Gatebreakers
• Exist on or near Objectives for a while

…in either case, racking up the bonus Battle Tactics as you go.

The former was the version that had the most success in AOS 2nd Edition: the majority of the 4-1s that I’m aware of came from two Gatebreakers, a Kraken-Eater and 3 Babies. That list is now illegal (if you really want to run it, you have to drop a Mancrusher); and furthermore, I’m very down on Mancrushers currently because they auto-die to anything that goes near them. While this has always been the case, you are now hemorrhaging VPs for your troubles.

Add in the fact that a lot of the big bads in the current meta shit all over your Giants in combat (Gotrek and Archaon spring to mind), and my preferred competitive direction is leaning heavily into Enhancements that give us extra survivability. Now let’s not go crazy – sometimes the best defensive play is to remove a glass hammer; and the best aggro option can heavily outmatch the diminished returns of the 4th-best defensive choice. But we do know which way the table is tilted with our Enhancements.

And speaking of Enhancements – that’s what we’re going for here. The low-drop option is nice to have, and something to explore if it’s relevant to your local meta, but 4 drops is already fine and gets you in the mix. So our strategy here is to take double Bosses of the Stomp Battalions, and use them for Magnificent Enhancements that play into our main condition of surviving near objectives as long as possible. There are plenty of good lists you can write by splitting the difference and taking one Magnificent, one Unified for 2 artefacts and 3 drops, but today we’ll be basking in our new found wealth.

Universal Themes

There are some common threads to these lists, so let’s cover them once and be done with it:

• Your Grand Strategy is “don’t get tabled”, so be prepared to run away for the last turn or two if required
• If you have a Triumph, you will take +1 to wound (Battleshock ain’t really a thing)
• Amulet of Destiny is the first thing going into every list, every time
• Whenever you see Arcane Tome, assume it’s primarily a defensive pick to cast Mystic Shield

The last thing I’ll touch on here is Battleplans. There are a couple of lists down below that don’t feature any Kraken-Eaters, and there’s a lot of fun you can have with that army structure. But the recent FAQ to Savage Gains in particular means that if you see that mission in an event pack, and you don’t take at least one Kicker, you really are just leaving money on the table:

So as much as I love the more fighty styles of Breakers and Stompers – and I think there are some really tempting lists down below for those tribes – I’d find it hard to justify taking them to an event featuring Savage Gains, because kicking on that mission really is that good.

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Takers Tribe

Strong as an ox, fresh out the box we’re going with what’s shaping up as the most competitive Tribe in early 3rd Edition. As Dan George pointed out to me in a private WhatsApp chat, Sons of Behemat are so bloody popular right now that you really need to consider the implications of other Tribes capping as 20 when Takers cap as 30. In other words, it’s absolutely worth teching for the mirror match right now, which makes Takers Tribe so fucking strong.

Now the slightly awkward thing about Takers is that you have loads of Command Traits that help with defense, but not a whole lot in the way of artefacts. Being a wizard can contribute, via Mystic Shield; and Jaws of the Mogalodon will certainly add up over the course of the game:

But there’s nothing there with the raw power of the Amulet, or even the defensive Command Traits. For that reason, we’ll be going with a Command Trait and three artefacts, rather than four artefacts. If anything, I’d honestly give up an artefact in this army to run two Command Traits.

The List: One of Each is for Wankers

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
– Tribe: Taker Tribe
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (490)*
– General
– Command Trait: Monstrously Tough
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (490)*
– Artefact: Krakenskin Sandals
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)**
– Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom (Universal Artefact)
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)**

Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140
Drops: 4

With 40 Wounds and a 5++ shrug, saving on 3s a lot of the time and healing on top, your General is one tough hombre. After that we’ve used up all our defensive tech, so we’re straight into naked aggression: Sandals makes your second Kraken a plausible threat in his own right, Gatebreaker’s gonna Gatebreak (especially with +1 to wound) and your Coherencystomper will use his trademark pluck at the worst possible moment for your opponent.

Of all the tribes, Kickers is the one that can maybe get away with blending 2 defensive and 2 aggressive pieces of tech, since you have inbuilt running-the-fuck-away functionality; and your Grand Strategy should be ticked off in all but the most extreme circumstances. This army is ready to go out and win a lot of games right now.

The Alternative

Old and Gnarly or Extremely Intimidating are just as good as the chosen CT here, and either could just slot right in; likewise Glowy Lantern could happily sit in the Krakenskin Sandals slot if that’s your preference.

You could easily run triple Krakens and dump the Stomper – in fact, if you’re playing a pack featuring Feral Foray, that’s exactly what I’d do. I would say that three Krakens and a Breaker is as close as this army has to a netlist currently, but there’s really only a bee’s dick between the two versions so I’ve gone with what I think is the slightly cooler option here, locking in a decent Triumph bid to boot.

Breakers Tribe

The List: The Best Form of Defence

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
– Tribe: Breaker Tribe (Fierce Loathing: Shiny ‘Uns)
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line

Leaders
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)*
– General
– Command Trait: Louder than Words
– Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)*
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)**

Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140
Drops: 4

Remember what I said about leaning into defence? Well that goes right out the window in Breakers Tribe. We’re still taking Amulet – we’re not fucking stupid – but your General is fully loaded and ready for war.

I’ve suggested Shiny Uns for your Fierce Loathing because you can use Titanic Duel against Hero Monsters, while All Out Attack is a guaranteed good time against non-Monsters (since they can’t Roar back at you). So either Shiny Uns or Idiots With Flags should mean you have all bases covered for +1 to hit across the board.

With Manticore Venom in play, you’ll consistently have your main man hitting on 3s and wounding on 2s on his big weapon, and 2s and 2s on the others. 12 attacks at rend -3 damage 3 is serious business, and that’s just for starters.

The Alternative

The other option, for those particularly nervous about a certain ginger lunatic, would be to drop your second Gatebreaker to a Warstomper + Shackles. Yeah, I said it! Breakers Tribe with only one Executioner.

Casting Shackles is obviously dicey, but once it’s out it’s a tough one to dispel; and it might be your best option in a Gotrek-rich environment. If you have the minerals to go down that path you’d probably switch around the artefacts to slap the Arcane Tome on your Bossman, serving up a rend -3 damage 4 Giga-Gargant when destiny calls.

Stompers Tribe

On paper, this subfaction wants you to run a Warstomper as a buff piece for Mancrushers. There’s only one problem with that – Mancrushers are shit. So we’re going to fuck them off and run 4 Megas instead, leaning into the true power of Stompers tribe:

1. Warstompers are that little bit cheaper, so each one enables the inclusion of a Gatebreaker
2. The Artefacts are insane

The List: Problemsolver Mega-Gargant

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat
– Tribe: Stomper Tribe
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)*
– General
– Command Trait: Eager for the Fight
– Artefact: Mantle of the Destroyer
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)*
– Artefact: Ironweld Cestus
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)**
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)**

Core Battalions
*Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
**Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 140
Drops: 4

Double Stomper, Double Breaker. Now where have I seen that before? This list does illustrate quite nicely how changes to the loadout of this army can have a big impact on its look and feel.

What we’re going for here is a Warstomper that buffs his fellow Megas, instead of the scrawny dweebs: Mantle of the Destroyer cranks their Bravery all the way up to 10. That’s huge for giving you a sporting chance of being able to participate in the game in some way if you’re playing against Lumineth, and doubles up as a nice boost to your healing rolls:

Meanwhile the Big Fella is taking the 3D6″ charge from 18″ away Command Trait. It’s important because he can’t use the generic CA to reroll charges, and it’s important to crack off long-bomb charges if your opponent is the kind of dog who runs Shackles (don’t scroll up). If I was asked to describe my own playstyle it would be “feelbad averse” (sometimes to my own detriment), and this cheeky sausage gives you a workaround for two of the most annoying pieces of shit in the game right now. This is also the only situation where I would consider a Triumph other than +1 to wound: rerolling that 3D6″ charge could really get you flying up the board and write some great stories.

In a world where save rerolls were largely (and understandably) stripped right out, Ironweld Cestus is batshit crazy. It would be one of the best artefacts in AOS even without the MW bounceback, but we will reluctantly accept that too. Our modern classic Crutch of Destiny slides onto Gatebreaker A, while Gatebreaker B rounds out a package that is pretty fucking rugged.

Not gonna lie, I’m tempted.

The Alternative

If your event pack favours kicking Objectives (see above note on Savage Gains), you’d have to strongly consider putting in a Kraken-Eater and a Triumph bid in place of the second Gatebreaker.

And it is with huge regret that I omit the Club of the First Oak from this list. Anything that terrifies the Surehammer crowd is OK with me, and I believe it to be very nearly as strong as the Mantle. It’s savage craic, but I did say I was writing competitive lists here so let’s run with the sensible choice.

Eh, who am I to spoil your fun? Fuck it, take the First Oak. You have my permission.

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So that’s a wrap, folks! 3 Lists, 3 Amulets and 0 fucking Mancrushers. I’d happily take any of these to an event this weekend, and feel confident of doing well, but that ain’t happening any time soon; so if you run one of these armies please let me know and I’ll live through you instead.

https://ko-fi.com/plasticcraic

Credit for the cover image to Games Workshop