For those few people who aren’t up to speed on the Australian AOS events calendar, Death or Riches is a 50 player, two day AOS event on the 5th and 6th of August 2023. It’s in the 5-round GT format and hosted by the redoubtable Lost Legion gaming club of Geelong which is just outside of Melbourne.
The Geelong guys have built up a solid rep for running tournaments and it was no surprise when this one sold out in record time, drawing the cream of the crop of AOS players from the the southern half of Australia. Nathan Thompson will be TO-ing on the day and we can expect a high standard from one of the veterans of the competitive scene.
By virtue of timing this is the first event under the new GHB in our half of the country and interest is running pretty high. The player pack is pretty standard with Win-Loss as the first placing followed by 20-0 differential. The Legion do their prizes by bracket which is a bit different.
It puts a nice spin on the event and it’s good to see the toilers walk away with something for a change. I’m not sure if there is a separate wooden spoon prize for the worst in the 0-5’s.
Battleplans are, in no particular order:
- Geomantic Pulse
- Nexus Collapse
- Every Step is Forward
- Spring the Trap (each player can remove d3 FRIENDLY units)
- No Reward Without Risk (deployment is 9″ from enemy territory)
This tournament has adopted several of the Masters standards for competitive play. YOU MUST HAVE TOKENS AVAILABLE FOR ALL OF YOUR BUFFS AND ABILITIES is the one I suspect will catch a few of the player pack skimmers out. Also chess clocks are encouraged throughout the tournament and mandatory on the top tables day two. Should be an interesting time.
Anyways, because I (Patrick) will be attending the event we are gong to try a hybrid article with the Craic House standard format of one Power Pick and one Coolest List for each Grand Alliance, followed by a breakdown of my own list and preparation as a part 1 of the tournament article. Unless I manage to completely fuck up the event somehow, there will be a part 2 after the event.
If you have a Stats and Ladders Account (and you should, it’s free and awesome) you can follow the tournament live on the day at Stats and Ladders, which is where you’ll also find the full set of lists.
DEATH GRAND ALLIANCE
by Pat Nevan
Death are up and about at the moment and I was expecting to see a bigger turnout than 7 armies. It’s certainly not because people in Victoria are too nice to run 200 Zombies at an event. Maybe, like me they were just too lazy to get them painted in time.
Power pick: Dan Trotter, Flesh Eater Courts
Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts
– Subfaction: Morgaunt
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Abhorrant Archregent (240)*
– Spells: Hoarfrost
Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)*
– General
– Command Traits: Savage Chivalry
– Artefacts of Power: Decrepit Coronet
– Spells: Hoarfrost
Nagash (900)**
BATTLELINE
Crypt Ghouls (240)**
– Crypt Ghast
Crypt Ghouls (240)**
– Crypt Ghast
Crypt Ghouls (80)**
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Chalice of Ushoran (50)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (80)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
A lot of complicated factors go into making up the AOS meta. Sometimes you go up, sometimes you go down. Sometimes the meta stars align to give birth to a terrible monster that can devour the universe and that is basically what has happened with the FEC.
This type of list works of a combination of pre-edition jank and updated rules.
So you lose a unit of Ghouls and bring it back if you hit your numbers. Not bad at all but not earth shattering, until you couple it with Nagash’s freaky new ability:
So if a unit is destroyed Big Poppa Pump can bring it at half strength. Now the interesting part is if a unit is destroyed and a new identical unit is added to the FEC, Nagash can still use his ability because the first unit still counts as having been destroyed. The unit Nagash returns can itself be returned by the Morgaunt ability which creates a new unit which, if destroyed can be returned by Nagash and so on and such forth.
So the 100-odd Ghouls in this list, including summons, become an infinite number of the damn things. But who cares, what are a bunch of Ghouls going to do? Quite a bit with every available buff from Nagash and Whorefrost going off.
The really odd thing about this list is the compulsory artefact is garbage. Why would you want to hang on to 4 raggedy-ass Ghouls when you could fish for 45 shiny new ones? I reckon Dan’s General will be leading from the front all the way into an early grave to run up a battle tactic.
Add in the Chalice returning legions of Ghouls every turn and the trick to beating this list is probably not killing any units. It has done big business overseas and I will be interested to see what Dan can do with it. Hopefully for his sake he has a bunch of new Royal Beastflayers to summon in off his Ghoul Kings. Those things are another nutty component of the perfect storm. It might take the chess clock to stop him.
Coolest List: Will Knight, Soulblight Gravelords
Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Subfaction: Kastelai
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination
– Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Prince Vhordrai (470)**
– Lore of the Vampires: Spirit Gale
Vampire Lord (140)*
– General
– Command Trait: Swift and Deadly
– Artefact: Fragment of the Keep
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Necromancer (100)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Cairn Wraith (100)***
– Allies
Battleline
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)**
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)**
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (120)**
Units
16 x Askurgan Trueblades (360)**
– Reinforced x 1
16 x Askurgan Trueblades (360)**
– Reinforced x 1
3 x Fell Bats (80)***
Core Battalions
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
***Wizard-Finders of Andtor
Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 100 / 400
Wounds: 162
Drops: 5
It’s a feature of these articles that the Coolest army tends to be a sort of booby prize for the player that has the stones to get beaten into paste with an army of giant spiders or some other Destro crap. Well not on my watch. Will’s SBGL army is both cool and strong, I won’t be surprised to see it on the top tables at the end of the event. This list is off meta for the current SBGL and is looking to do its work with vampire foot troops.
The Power Core of the army is Vhordrai and the Askurgan Trueblades. Depending on what you kill, Kastelai can add permanent buffs to vampire units:
- +1 attack (Kill a 4 wound model)
- +1 damage (Kill a Monster or Hero)
- +1 Movement (Who cares)
Vhrodrai has an ability that lets the same buff go onto two units, so the plan is to kill your damage and attack stuff with Vhordrai and splash the buffs onto the foot vampires who get very nasty with extra attacks and damage. Along with their anti-monster tech, Askurgans make their opponents fight last bringing those board wide charges into play.
The rest of the list is fairly solid, zombies and the new super-special casting battalion. The Cairn Wraith is a nasty little package and the unit of wizard-hunting fell bats is a nice touch. You aren’t seeing a lot of Kastelai lists around at the moment but this sort of thing will be the future of the faction once the nerf bat lands on the current filth.
Will is also a top notch painter so this one should be a treat to look at as well.
DESTRUCTION GRAND ALLIANCE
by Peter Atkinson
Power Pick: Kruleboyz, Michael Clarke
Allegiance: Kruleboyz
– Warclan: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs:
Leaders
Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork (240)
– Lore of the Swamp: Sneaky Miasma
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (120)**
– General
– Command Trait: Supa Sneaky
– Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
Murknob with Belcha-banna (70)**
Swampboss Skumdrekk (280)***
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)*
– Lore of the Swamp: Choking Mist
Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (100)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Battleline
20 x Gutrippaz (300)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Gutrippaz (150)***
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)**
Units
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)***
– Reinforced x 1
6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)***
– Reinforced x 1
Core Battalions
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
***Battle Regiment
Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 161
Drops: 5
As soon as I say the words Plain Jane Superbrain, middle-aged Aussies will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s an iconic moment in Australian pop culture, our own 1980s version of the sexist old TV trope where a bookish nerd takes off her glasses, shakes down her hair and is suddenly smoking hot. What’s happened to Clarkey? He made his name running NPE Order Gunlines, and now he’s blossomed before our eyes, running Kool Boyz at multiple events.
Gobsprakk’s own “before and after” transformation is already well-documented, dropping MW bombs on enemy wizards through enhanced unbinds and terrorising ALs throughout the mortal realms. Will Gobby combined with a single Murknob be enough to slow down Seraphon’s face-melting fury? Unlikely, frankly, but there aren’t many Destro builds that can. And if Clarkey does manage to nail an improbable series of 5+s at a clutch moment, well all I can say he’s earned it with this chad list.
Double Shammies to buff double 6-blocks of dakka is there to make use of Grinnin’ Blades and their trademark “you can’t shoot me, but I can shoot you” tech. There’s not shaping up to be a whole lot of shooting at this event, but it will help protect against some magic damage too, and where it doesn’t (such as AOE mortal bombs) you’re relying on hitting a big unbind from Gobbalicious or nailing the 5+ Murknob shrug.
Skumdrekk is a good call – 10 points cheaper, 1 more wound and a better snatch than the generic Croc, so if you’d forgotten this warscroll existed then now is a good time to remember him. As the game builds to a crescendo, the Shammies will switch gears to buffing Skummy and the reinforced Gutrippaz for the Kruleboyz Waaagh, delivering two big back-to-backtivations followed by a far less imposing 3rd unit such as the unbuffed Gnashboss or Capital G himself.
There’s not quite as much standing between your army and instant death as one would wish – I daresay Clarkey wishes he could have squeezed in some Moonclan Grots or even just another unit of Hobgrots to help control the board. But sadly the ‘Rippaz are still far too expensive for such luxuries, so he’ll be walking that tightrope of danger weekend.
Is it poor form to select a fellow contributor’s list, even if they’re helping out as a guest writer? Probably, but Clarkey got me good and drunk on my 40th at one of his legendary house parties, so he’s alright in my book. Hopefully there’s a podium waiting at the other end – fucking get it.
Coolest List: Fletcher Oldaker, Gloomspite (Spiderfang)
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Protect da Shrine!
– Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders
Webspinner Shaman on Arachnarok Spider(250)**
– General
– Command Trait: Supa-nasty Venom
– Artefact: Totem of the Spider God
– Lore of the Spiderfang: Scuttling Terrors
Webspinner Shaman (65)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Rabble-Rowza (100)**
Madcap Shaman (70)*
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Big Drogg Fort-Kicka (470)
– Allies
Battleline
10 x Spider Riders (180)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Spider Riders (180)**
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Spider Riders (180)**
– Reinforced x 1
Arachnarok Spider with Spiderfang Warparty(210)**
Arachnarok Spider with Spiderfang Warparty(210)**
Endless Spells & Invocations
Scuttletide (80)
Core Battalions
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 470 / 400
Wounds: 156
Drops: 4
What do you see when you look in the mirror? I see a coward, a diminished shell of a man who wouldn’t have the sheer joie de vivre to run a list like the one that Fletcher is packing at a 2-dayer. As the second wave of nerfs has battered Gloomspite down from rarely making podiums to rarely being played competitively, we’re back to the hardcore hobbyists being the main ones who’ll back themselves to make Gits work. As such we’ve only got two Gits generals at the event, Fletcher and Zeke White, and both are running Spiderfang. Absolute legends the pair of them.
How do you separate perfection? Fletcher gets the nod because of the Merc Mega Gargant – gotta love that Big Drogg Energy.
The Gatebreaker is a prime candidate for Hoarfrost, to fix that annoying To Hit characteristic, and just hope you don’t roll a 5+. The Madcap Shammy will be hoping to teleport the Webspinner up the board to let it snow, and meanwhile the reinforced units of 10 Spider Riders tell us that Fletcher is expecting to make those units do the hard yakka in the list and fight as well as screen.
Rabble-Rowza is pretty expensive for my money but his little bat bomb should be cool in at least one game for finishing off what the Scuttletide starts, and Fletcher certainly has enough Monsters to try and engineer the run and charge at some point. If Nathan is any kind of TO, he’ll rig the draw to make Fletcher and Zeke coincidentally face off against each other round one. You’d love to see it.
GRAND ALLIANCE CHAOS
by Michael Clarke
Big thanks to Team Australia stalwart Clarkey for this guest review! Take it away mate.
Coolest List: Lenny Bell, Hedonites of Slaanesh
“Cool” is always subjective, a judgement in the eye of the beholder, but to me it comes down to oddball choices with fun mechanics, using rarely seen units and combos, and of course a bit of originality to spice the mix!
Now for Chaos, this is a really hard job, as Chaos is chock-full of extremely rarely seen units and possible combos! Picking between so many contenders was difficult…And thus part of the process is to flip the question around and go through a process of elimination to eliminate the not-cool chaff from the glorious wheat. Well, this bit started easy, by immediately crossing out from ‘coolest’ contention the current meta Tzeentch netlist. That build is flirting with the risk that the 2022 plague of Incarnates may be coming back to ruin the all the fun for melee players in the game….
Not original = not cool
So by swiftly ruling out all the Tzeentch – Incarnate netlisty stuff, ultimately for Coolest in Chaos, I’m going to pick Lenny Bell’s Slaanesh Invader list:
Army Faction: Hedonites of Slaanesh
– Army Type: Invaders
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADER
1 x Keeper of Secrets (400)*
– General
– Command Traits: Best of the Best
– Shining Aegis
– Artefacts: Icon of Infinite Excess
– Spells: Flaming Weapon
1 x Infernal Enrapturess (120)*
– General
1 x Lord of Hubris (130)*
– General
1 x Shalaxi Helbane (390)**
– General
– Shining Aegis
– Spells: Hysterical Frenzy
1 x Contorted Epitome (210)**
– General
– Spells: Hysterical Frenzy
BATTLELINE
11 x Blissbarb Archers (160)*
5 x Symbaresh Twinsouls (140)*
10 x Daemonettes (120)**
10 x Daemonettes (120)**
BEHEMOTH
1 x Cygor (210)**
TERRAIN
1 x Fane of Slaanesh (0)
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
The first question everyone is probably gonna ask is – ummn, what does Invaders subfaction do? Lenny has bravely deviated away from the Slaanesh competitive autopick choice of Pretenders, finally bringing out one of those other sub-factions from the book.
Now, Invaders have a cool mechanic where all their heroes are generals and they can multi-stack command traits through the game via heroic actions. The Icon gives a once per game army-wide attack buff, which could be combo’d with a double activation from the Keeper to harvest some sweet, sweet depravity. Shalaxi is rarely seen vs the generic Keeper, but has some fun tricks……and of course we can’t overlook the inclusion of a random Cygor ally to the list! Wot?!?
There are lots of Special Shoutouts within Chaos for ‘Cool’, including:
- Alex for bringing a Hellpit Abomination
- Ben with Hellstrider spam!
- Justin packing heat with Valkia
- Thommo for bravely not bringing a stupid Krondspine in his Tzeentch! (Although this one is an ultra marginal shout out though, given the 30 Horrors in Hosts Dup….)
Power Pick: Sam Sims-Bailey, Blades of Khorne
After all that shade throwing, I of course do recognize that net-list Tzeentch is a meta netlist for a reason… it works to win games. The current season magic-themed GHB plays strongly for Tzeentch’s competitiveness, especially combined with their super easy Battletactics and Grand Strategy. Tzeentch will place highly this season.
But because it is impossible to pick between those Tzeentch copy-pasta lists, I am going to go with Simzy’s Khorne list as my ‘Most Competitive’ amongst the Chaos lists.
Allegiance: Khorne
– Slaughterhost: The Bloodlords
– Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery
– Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)**
– Prayer: Bronzed Flesh
Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)**
– Nullstone Adornment: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon
– Prayer: Unholy Flames
Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (110)**
– Artefact: Halo of Blood
– Prayer: Killer Instinct
Bloodsecrator (120)*
– Artefact: Banner of Blood
Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne (160)*
– Prayer: Blood Sacrifice
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)*
– General
– Command Trait: Firebrand
– Artefact: A’rgath the King of Blades
– Prayer: Bloodbind
Battleline
8 x Claws of Karanak (100)**
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)
20 x Bloodletters (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Bloodletters (360)*
– Reinforced x 1
Units
9 x The Unmade (80)**
– Allies
Endless Spells & Invocations
Hexgorger Skulls (50)
Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Warlord
Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact
Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 80 / 400
Wounds: 157
Drops: 11
Khorne is really hot right now, with lots of unique tools that can blunt or outright overturn magic dominance, with players risking their wizards’ heads exploding from the Hexgorgers, the Throne or simply fueling Khorne with free Bloodtithe points for bonus Murderlust jank!
157 wounds mostly in the 20 block squads of Bloodletters can be very difficult to deal with from a safe distance, especially in a meta with limited shooting and requirement to generate free Bloodtithe by ‘trading’ melee units into those multiple screen layers, with the Bloodletters ready to counterpunch HARD and no way to stop all those buff prayers going off. Simzy has also been seen fairly regularly on the podium at Victorian AOS events and leveled up his game further with a Masters showing last year, so he knows what he is doing with this dangerous list. Watch out, will place highly and genuine threat for a podium.
ORDER GRAND ALLIANCE
by Joel McGrath
Big thanks to Joel for this guest review, fresh from his 5-0 with BOC at Fatal 4 Play! Over to you mate.
G’day MotherFuckers! Joel here from Measured Gaming back from the dead yet again, but this time in written format, reviewing some lists for the upcoming Death or Riches tournament ran by my good mate Nathan Thompson down in Geelong. Find a comfortable spot on the dunny as we get stuck into the Order lists!
Unfortunately, at this event there isn’t a whole bunch of variety in Order at this event, outside of a certain faction that’s soon to be receiving an update (foreshadowing). Which doesn’t help the stigma of the Grand Alliance being boring – not that I agree with that statement, but I need to turn it up for the Craic House audience. Who for the most part, are Orruk simping cucks. You better leave this in Pete!
Power pick: Joel Graham, Seraphon
Allegiance: Seraphon
– Constellation: Fangs of Sotek (3 redeploys, 2 skink units free)
– Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant (General lives)
– Triumphs: Inspired (+1 to wound)
Lord Kroak (410)*
Skink Starseer (150)**
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard (4d6 mortals)
– Spell: Speed of Huanchi (skink unit hero phase move)
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)*
Slann Starmaster (275)**
– General
– Command Trait: Lord of Celestial Resonance (2 ccp for cast/dispel/unbind)
– Spell: Drain Magic (-1 unbind boardwide, herophase dispels)
– Lore of Primal Frost: Rupture (Turn E.S. or incarnate wild)
Terradon Chief (100)**
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
10 x Skinks (90)*
– Boltspitters & Moonstone Clubs
5 x Saurus Guard (140)*
5 x Raptadon Chargers (150)*
Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
– Allies
Malevolent Maelstrom (30)
Suffocating Gravetide (30)
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
RealmShaper Engine
Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 480 / 400
Wounds: 75
Drops: 4
Well would you look at that, an incredibly strong player running an equally strong army. And what a nice guy, he has gone to the length of making it easier for the Destruction players by following the new trend of adding in notes to his list on all his units that have taken traits, artefacts, spells etc. not only making it easier for me to review, but so his players can work out how he’s going to fuck them sooner.
Joel has gone for Fangs of Sotek Seraphon with Kroak AND an Incarnate. Expect this Incarnate to go wild from turn 1 thanks to Rupture on the Slaan general, it will then charge his Maelstrom turn 1 with run and charge, eat it with the monstrous action going up to level 3 and end up in your front lines before you get to do anything. By the time you’ve dealt with it and potentially survive any mortal wound bombing from Kroak, you’ll find yourself in a position of not being able to charge anything meaningful (assuming you can in the first place) as he’ll have flooded the board with Skink summons who are redeploying on 2D6 choosing the highest, with 3 units and only spending 1 of his free CP.
This list bangs, it has magical superiority into pretty much any matchup, and it even has a good shot into a Khorne matchup, because the damage from his spells are the sprinkles on top. Plus, he can pivot his summons into other units if necessary. Don’t sleep on that Suffocating Gravetide too, that thing is a great pick into a potential Zombie spam meta. I expect this to go 5-0 and any other result is a massive failure on Joel’s part.
Coolest list: Mike Johnson, Cities of Sigmar
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Hammerhal
– Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery
– Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Anointed (110)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master of Magic
– Nullstone Adornment: Pouch of Nulldust
Runelord (100)*
– City Role: General’s Adjutant
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Knight-Draconis (300)*
– Artefact: Saint’s Blade
Battleline
20 x Phoenix Guard (340)*
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Phoenix Guard (170)*
10 x Phoenix Guard (170)*
Units
10 x Flagellants (80)*
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Drakerider’s Lance
– Reinforced x 1
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
Total: 1950 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 107
Drops: 1
Before I get stuck in it’s important to note that this will be one of, if not the last event in Australia before the new Cities book drops. I want to give a special shoutout to the other cities players at this event, Sam Morgan and Nigel Weir! While your lists didn’t make the cut, I wish you fellas all the best in your games, from one Cities player to another.
Mike has chosen to rep Hammerhal and is running an anti-magic list. That’s right, we’re going from one extreme to another! Who needs primal dice, who needs hoarfrost? Not Mike that’s for certain. What a fucking chad. I’ve always liked anti meta lists like this because it screws with your opponent’s plans and allows you to do your own thing.
Anointed General unlocks Phoenix Guard Battleline, who’re quite tanky with a 4+ ward. He’s gone for Master of Magic for reroll unbinds in combo with the heroic action, as well as Pouch of Nulldust to potentially hit casting armies with bigger chances to miscast on double 1s, 2s and 3s. His Runelord also has +2 to unbind, a great counter meta pick for any Order army that can take them.
The damage dealers are the Knight-Draconis and the unit of 4 Stormdrake guard: both units have a 4+ spell ignore, and the Hammerhal command ability will allow those dragons to fight twice when they’re in their opponent’s territory. Which isn’t a huge task when they’re flying monsters. He’s kitted them out with the lances, so expect a big turn if he can land the charge in your deployment with a bunch of -2 2d attacks (7 per model). And if he gets this off with the once a game double tap shooting from the Knight-Draconis, you Destruction players will be crying to your dumb two-headed, inbred god. The territories for this GHB are very favorable for this once-beloved command ability. So great pick Mike, and good luck in your games!
Joel’s closing thoughts:
Dear reader, you’re probably wondering why a dragon army has made it as the coolest list pick. Not that I need to justify my choices, but dragons are fucking cool. Don’t @ me. Special shoutout to Adam Mitchell running Gotrek in Sylvaneth. I love that guy, and wish Adam well too!
Big thanks to Pete for giving me the opportunity to write up some stuff for the blog. The bill’s in the mail.
Well I should be safe then, with Postman Joel delivering the mail it’ll never fucking get here.
Massive thanks to Clarkey and Joel for sharing their thoughts, good luck to you both and to our boy Pat too. It’s gonna be a huge weekend, hope you have a rippa!
Cover Image: Credit to NC Dave
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Fine, for the nobody who cares
Patrick’s Geelong List
Generic Gore Pilgrims 26: Tell them Johnny Sent You
Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Mawtribe: Bloodgullet
– Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder
– Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders
Slaughtermaster (140)*
– Bloodgullet 2nd Spell: Blood Feast
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Slaughtermaster (140)*
– Bloodgullet 2nd Spell: Molten Entrails
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)*
– General
– Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter
– Artefact: The Seat of Alvagr
– Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
– Prayer: Keening Gale
Battleline
6 x Ogor Gluttons (240)*
– Paired Ogor Clubs or Bluntblades
Units
20 x Gnoblars (120)*
20 x Gnoblars (120)*
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
– Gargant Hackers
– Reinforced x 1
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
– Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
– Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (50)
Aethervoid Pendulum (40)
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 141
Drops: 1
I honestly put more thought into the list for this event than I ever have for work or study, never mind some stupid clickbait article. I’m in a bit of a bind list wise. I’m currently working on my Zombie spam SBGL so I’m not feeling any of my current competitive armies. Nurgle is more of the same and playing Khorne is like visiting your youthful stomping grounds and finding all the pubs have been replaced by Micro Breweries and all your old pals have become bearded Hipsters in Jean Shorts.
Still, there’s always Ogors, so I decided to go against type and put the BCR on the table. It didn’t take me long to settle on a one drop. As someone who normally takes a lot of enhancements and the high drops that come with them, an annual one drop is a good palette cleanser. You can forgo a lot of the tactics of deployment, dump your shit on the table, dictate the pace of the game and let your opponent worry about what can reach them turn one.
So the list is built around the Johhny style of combos for a range of different units. The Slaughtermasters are double cast and leaning into Whorefrost. If everything works, with an extra attack, plus one to wound from the Slaughtermaster and Whorefrost on one of the weapon profiles, everything here can do a lot of damage. If nothing works, well that’s why I have Gnoblars to hide behind and Frosty the Stonehorn to dazzle with his tap dancing. The Endless Spells are there because why wouldn’t you run Geminids? The Pendulum is pretty sweet on the double turn, which I’ll be playing for and gives you decent single target output if you have to risk the “Kill a unit with spells or endless spells” battle tactic.
I think this one might do a bit of business. Bloodgullet casters seem good on paper and the extra wounds have to put them ahead of other AL wizards. The numbers on buffed Mournfang and Gluttons in this list really do go all the way up to eleven. Ogors have easy battle tactics which is crucial for this GHB as well. That said, the reality for the Mawtribes is failing your crucial buffs, losing output and running out of bodies by turn four.
Anytime you run a gimmick list you always dream of a 5-0, but a 4-1 is optimistic for this field. I might end up lucky to walk away with the traditional Mawtribes 3-2. I wasn’t too thrilled with my sportsmanship last event so a few losses here should be a good chance to turn things around and start behaving like a grown-ass man. Either way it should be a good weekend; I’ll be back afterwards with an event recap.
Plastic Craic 