by Peter Atkinson

When a newer player asks what army they should pick up, I try to avoid the Captain Obvious answer of “just play whatever models you like the look of”. What if that army’s shit, and they get ROFL-stomped every game? They’re either going to have to buy that second army they already liked almost as much, in which case you’ve cost them about a grand, or they’re going to get dispirited and buy a Magic deck instead, in which case you’ve driven someone out of the hobby, you clichéd hack.

Nope, the correct answer for any new player who has even the slightest interest in them is Skaven. They’re uniquely Warhammer, they look awesome on the table, and they’re very forgiving for new painters as well as an exceptional canvas for more experienced artists. You can really grow into the hobby with Skaven, starting out by slap-chopping Clanrats and moving on to luminous green OSL in no time.

And just as importantly, they’re always playable on the tabletop. They’re literally good at everything: efficient chaff, powerful melee hammers, strong magic, scary shooting, cool and underused pet units to express yourself. Whatever way the game goes, Skaven can respond, and if you’re only going to play one army competitively they have the toolbox to go with you for the full journey.

They’re one of those non-Destruction armies that has tempted me from time to time, but they’re a bit like 40K Orks: you’re never really done with an army. You aren’t doing them justice if you just do 2000 points and stop there. A Skaven collection demands and deserves to be added to indefinitely; Skaven are a lifestyle.

If I was going to do Skaven, I’d want to go the Moulder route and put together some truly horrible creations from my bits box. In the next book I’d actually like to see a Matched Play-legal Clans Moulder Anvil of Apotheosis – other game systems have managed similar things – but only if they let me (personally) sign off on it first, to stop them inevitably including and undercosting all the same crap they always do, like Ethereal.

Anyway. Let’s stop worrying about the next Skaven book, and start enjoying this cool and competitive list that Aipaca has put together for the current GHB. It’s a good ‘un.

Winner: Aipaca, Skaven

You can and should follow them on Twitter right here:

Tweets by AlastairAshley

Triple Grey Seers for Fun and Profit

Army Faction: Skaven

LEADERS

Grey Seer (120)*

– General

– Command Traits: Eater of Magic

– Artefacts of Power: Staff of Rightful Supremacy

– Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Skitterleap

Grey Seer (120)*

– Spells: Death Frenzy, Hoarfrost

Grey Seer (120)*

– Spells: Death Frenzy, Skitterleap

Lord Skreech Verminking (370)**

Master Moulder (90)** – Warpstone-tipped Lash

Plague Priest (100)** – Prayers: Rabid-rabid!

BATTLELINE

Clanrats (100)

Clanrats (100)

Plague Censer Bearers (270)

Giant Rats (180)**

BEHEMOTH

Hell Pit Abomination (200)

OTHER

Warp-Grinder (60)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS

1 x Aethervoid Pendulum (40)

1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)

1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (30)

CORE BATTALIONS *Andtorian Acolytes **Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: 1950/2000

Those Grey Seers bring lots of 3D6 casts for when you don’t want to spend your primal dice.

The list packs four decent combat threats:

• The Giant Rat blob (the primary Hoarfrost target, aiming for hitting on 2s);
• Skreetch;
• The Plague Censor Bearers (secondary Hoarfrost target);
• And the priced-to-move Hell Pit Abomination

Here’s a list that loves to go second, but will punish you for making it take first with lots of endless spell damage and threatening a Blizzard with a Skitterleaped Grey Seer. Finally the Warpgrinder can hide the PCBs against shooting or set up forward screening Clanrats against melee armies.

Aipaca has nailed the brief here, with a cool and competitive list that really showcases and centres what this GHB is asking of you. As a winner, it’s your prerogative to set a future challenge if you so wish, but otherwise I hope the barrage of lucrative celebrity endorsements that is no doubt coming your way transforms your life. Great job.

Runner-Up: Darren Watson, Maggotkin of Nurgle

Tweets by PositiveVictim

– Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle

– Subfaction: Filthbringers

– Grand Strategy: Blessed Desecration

– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS

Rotbringer Sorcerer (Rot Coven) (120)*

– General

– Command Traits: Infernal Conduit

– Artefacts of Power: Muttergrub

– Spells: Gift of Disease, Hoarfrost

Rotbringer Sorcerer (Rot Coven) (120)* – Spells: Blades of Putrefaction

Rotbringer Sorcerer (Rot Coven) (120)* – Spells: Merciless Blizzard

Be’lakor (340)**

Epidemius (140)**

BATTLELINE

Plaguebearers (130)**

Plaguebearers (130)**

Plaguebearers (130)**

OTHER

Plague Drones (400)**

Plague Drones (200)**

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS

1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)

1 x Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)

1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (30)

CORE BATTALIONS *Andtorian Acolytes **Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Good to see a genuine hobby celebrity jump on one one of our list building challenges. A lot of Nurgle players are looking at Rot Flies this GHB. The changes to coherency and the chance of giving the buggers rend gives them real potential output. The misery of building an army’s worth of them is another story.

The Filthbringers are a natural fit for the list building challenge. For anyone unfamiliar with the sub faction you get to buy 3 discount Rotbringer Sorcerers who come with this ability:

This is particularly good this edition because you can get an extra cast and unbind at plus 3 if you take the second turn of the battleround. Rotbringer Sorcerers also spread disease with their endless spells which can really add up over the course of a game. You don’t often see a mortal Nurgle general without the really stinky command trait, but Infernal Conduit buffs your summoning so it’s ok for someone you don’t want within 7 inches of the enemy.

Belakor does what he does and I tend to think he does it better in a list where he has a few endless spells to fling around, as opposed to being a mystic shield bot with a miserable warscroll spell. You don’t see a lot of Epidemus but his rerolls are quite useful, especially when it comes to avoiding that dreaded miscast. I hadn’t even considered using his ward rerolls to cuck people out of a battle tactic but it’s a damn good idea.

Like all Nurgle lists this one runs out of points pretty quickly. With Belakor and three units of Plague Bearers you’re not getting much else. Kudos to Darren for leaving the Maggoth Lords out and really leaning into the magic side of things. Poor old Bloab could use some time off from turning up in every Nurgle List.

It’s a shame there aren’t enough points for even a goofy Brayherd Shaman to make a Warlord battalion. You would be adding to your drops but this list could really benefit from a spell enhancement. Between the faction lore and the new GHB stuff there are a lot of very good options.

(Just as an FYI all the true gods should be looking into Brayherd Shamans: cheaper than any legit sorcerer, and as coalition allies they can take Andtorian spells. If some schmuck is going to die casting Blizzard they may as well make a funny goat bleating noise while they do).

---

August Listbuilding Challenge: Meme List, Theme List, Dream List

You know what I’m sad about? The Endless Stonehorns list getting the arse. I only saw it taken to an event by one experienced player, and they failed to make the Top 10, so it can’t have been that bent.

But all good Destruction things must come to a swift and brutal end, and so it was orf with their heads. You can’t even fit in the 6 Stonehorns by dropping a Frostlord down to a Huskard now, nor by dropping one unit of Beastriders down to some Gluttons. They really did a number on it, to burn the army’s soul as well as its corpse.

Anyway, it’s your job this month to help me turn that frown upside down. A great joy of listbuilding is taking something dumb and making it good – to transform a meme list into a theme list. So that’s what we’re doing in August.

• No Battleline allowed
• Your armies must contain at least three Conditional Battleline units
• This can be contingent on having a certain General, taking a certain subfaction or both

The more thematic the better – what we really want to see is how you can turn base metal into gold. Oops All Squigs with a Moonclan General will technically fit the criteria, but it’s probably not going to get you into Valhalla. Unless it’s one of those months where all the entries are shit, in which case you never know.

And just to be doubly clear: no Battleline allowed. It’s no good sending me lists with two Beastriders and a unit of Gluttons. We’re pushing in all the chips here. I thought it was pretty clear last month that we wanted to see 3x AL wizards in the Battalion and 3x Endless Spells, and yet some fuck-knuckles still sent in Batallions with only 2 wizards. I know that not everyone is a maths whizz, but I did kind of assume you could all count to three.

Also just a word about where the Listbuilding Challenge is going in future. We’re growing the site month by month. I’d love to get it to the stage where we can offer up a physical prize of some kind for these Challenges, and if we keep growing as we have been, we’ll get there.

In the meantime we’re all just doing it for the boundless glory, so keep sending in your lists – if you haven’t been lucky so far, do keep having a crack, because there’s often precious little to choose between the lists that we print and those that narrowly miss out.

If you want to have a crack, get into my DMs on twitter, or email me at: PlasticCraicAOS@outlook.com

Have a good weekend, nerds – see you on the other side.

Cover Image: Abomination by Jem Duducu

If you’d like to help us continue with our work, we’d love to have your support. We’re the Age of Sigmar specialists, publishing regular AOS articles, including Patron-only posts on that platform. Please click here to join us on Patreon.