by the Plastic Craic Team
Do you want to read through ~200 lists? Course you don’t! Life’s too short for that shit, and that’s where we step in with our Power Picks and Coolest Lists. Our team has worked through the entries for each GA and picked out one strong list that should do well, and one cool army that deserves to be celebrated, to present the highlights in a really digestible format.
The lists are all up on Stats and Ladders:
https://my.statsandladders.com/tournament/show/0d25b8a2-651d-4ff1-ab3d-715c0a5697a7/info
So set up an account and have a browse over there if you’re keen, but we’ve already done a lot of legwork for you – so let’s take a tour through the highlights.
Ready? Let’s go.
Destruction, by Peter Atkinson
Power Pick: Sam Morgan, Gloomspite Gitz
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: King’s Gitz
– Grand Strategy: Protect da Shrine!
– Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (110)*
– General
– Command Trait: Shaman of the Chilled Lands
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork
Skragrott, The Loonking (230)*
One-Eyed Grunnock (400)*
– Allies
BATTLELINE
15 x Boingrot Bounderz (450)*
– Reinforced x 2
15 x Boingrot Bounderz (450)*
– Reinforced x 2
20 x Moonclan Shootas (120)*
OTHER
6 x Sneaky Snufflers (140)*
5 x Sporesplatta Fanatics (90)*
CORE BATTALION
*Battle Regiment
Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 143
Drops: 1
2x 15 Boingrots is shockingly basic for a man of Smorgan’s character, and he’s obviously angling for more wins than pats on the back at this event. Fair play to him and he’s sure to smash a lot people right off the table with this army.
King’s Gitz is the summoning subfaction but rather than doubling down with Clammy Hand for two dice rerollable, Sam’s taken Chilled Shammy to know the whole snow-spell lore. Encroach on his Loonshrine and wear a Blizzard to the face would be the general idea, but he does have a couple of sweet Hoarfrost targets too. The Lances might already pop off at rend -2 on the charge, but the Squigs they’re riding on could use the extra rend, and they definitely don’t mind hitting on 2s instead of 4s if you roll low.
As our most loyal readers know, I love to make everything about me have been making the case for One-Eyed Grunnock for a long time now, and he’s a great anchor for a list like this. Terror can decimate units like Bullgors – kill half and the other half run, which feels awful on expensive models. It gives you a stable platform to launch your Boingrot missiles from, the neg 1 to hit synergises well and now that he’s crept down from representing quater of your points to a fifth, he’s an out and out bargain.
Gargant Mercs do still sprinkle a little bit of stardust into your list and if Sam craps out, he might try and use Grunnock to claim this as a fun or renegade iteration of Just Yeet Squigs, but Grunnock is very sharply costed at 400 points in a pretty low key way.
15 Boingrots will massacre anything they go near, and it also happens to be the sweet spot for reliably Boinging off a foot hero on the charge (you only have to get one model near him to pop all 15 dice in his direction). They Rally on a 4+ but if you do manage to kill the Boingrots, Sam (hopefully) recycles them through the Shrine as still-deadly units of 8, and they just smash whatever you’ve got left. EZPZ.
Slamming a 400 point Monster in there means something has to give, and in this case it’s the Gobbapalooza that misses out. But with redundancy on Hand of Gork, Grunnock to switch off Inspiring Presence and Hoarfrost for the rend, Sam’s got most of their functionality in the list regardless. I’m tipping Sam to have a big impact on the tournament and make the Top 8.
Honourable Mentions: Power Picks
Ben Moore has the opportunity to go well with his Big Waaagh list. Fatigue is a real factor at Cancon: if you kept prisoners in that tin shed for the whole weekend in an Australian summer, Amnesty International would call it a cruel punishment. Playing an army with a reliable pathway through the Battle Tactics should stand Ben in good stead on Day 3 when others are flagging, so if he makes it that far, the sky’s the limit. Keep an eye out for Bradley Baker too who has brought a highly competitive Brodd’s Stomp list. Brad has played the shit out of SOB and he’s ready to take some scalps.
The Best in Faction for Ironjawz will be an interesting subplot: Tristan Smith with his sleeper Gordrakk list (that recently spanked my Bonesplitterz), David Sulava fresh from winning a regional tourney with his Ironjawz, Mitch Bugg with his classic smooth Bloodtoofs pigs and Rob Reimers with his battle-hardened 40x Brutes are all experienced players who have shown time and again that they can win loads of games with this army. I’ll be keeping a close eye on all of their results and there’s a real chance we’ll see at least one Ironjawz army in the Top 8 here. Good luck fellas.
Coolest List: Max Palmer, Sons of Behemat
Max Palmer brings Max Mancrushers for Max Mayhem:
Army Faction: Sons of Behemat
– Army Type: Stomper Tribe
– Grand Strategy: Brodd’s Revenge
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS
King Brodd (520)*
– General
BATTLELINE
Mancrusher Gargant (140)
Mancrusher Gargant (140)***
Mancrusher Gargant (140)***
Mancrusher Gargant (140)***
Mancrusher Gargant (140)**
Mancrusher Gargant (140)**
Mancrusher Gargant (140)**
Mancrusher Gargant (140)*
Mancrusher Gargant (140)*
Mancrusher Gargant (140)*
CORE BATTALIONS
*Footsloggas
**Footsloggas
***Footsloggas
TOTAL POINTS: 1920/2000
Max is playing a completely different game from everybody else, dinking and dunking swarms of counts-as-10 models onto objectives. I’ve had the pleasure of playing against something similar locally and I can tell you that it’s quite the eye-opener when you see this army Redeploy.
If you’re not aware, when your General in Stomper Tribe (King Brodd in this case) issues a CA , they can dish it out to every unit in range. So that might be boosting the output when your whole army starts to chuck rocks, or it might be reshuffling the pack when you move within 9″ of them. You move one unit, and they move three. Then you move one more unit, and they move another three. You’re a spectator in your own movement phase and it’s just a really unique army to play with and against.
The Babies do get the bonus damage against bigger units, and Brodd’s prayers are boardwide, but they will still die in droves even with army-wide All Out Defence, so it’s not just the same old “Standing On Circles” Gargant gameplan. Max will bring his opponent guaranteed high octane games with really unusual play patterns.
Honourable Mentions: Coolest List
You always love to see a proper Meatfist list, and the pick of the bunch for wow-factor here is Joel Menzies. Blackpowder’s Buccaneers are a real BDE pick and borderline spamming Maneaters takes a special kind of maniac. The allied Aleguzzler is yet another flex and it’s the icing on a delicious, meaty cake.
Meanwhile Chris Chrichton is repping Trugg’s Troggherd with gusto. He’s named all of his units, right down to the units of 3x Fellwaters, and if old “Nolgonk 3-arm” isn’t a sick conversion then there’s something seriously wrong. If you have any photos of the army Chris, please get in touch, cos I reckon this will be a beaut.
Order, by Calvin Rarie
Boy it feels weird having to choose power picks and cool lists for Order armies like a proper Order Wanker.
Thankfully, Order armies these days are running a real gamut of both really strong and really interesting lists. The feared dominance of 70 Fusiliers and the Grundstok Expeditionary Force nonsense has turned out to be more or less gigantic nothing-burgers, so when you look at the lists out in Cancon, you get some real heat and some really interesting lists!
So let’s get into it starting with my Power Pick:
Power Pick: Joel McGrath, Stormcast Eternals
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
– Stormhost: Astral Templars (Scions of the Storm)
– Grand Strategy: Barren Icescape
LEADERS
Ionus Cryptborn, Warden of Lost Souls (400)**
– Prayer: Bless Weapons
Knight-Draconis (300)*
– General
– Command Trait: Heroic Stature
– Artefact: Drakescale Armour
– Mount Trait: Celestial Instincts
Lord-Castellant (160)*
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
Lord-Exorcist (150)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
BATTLELINE
5 x Liberators (100)**
– Heavens-wrought Weapon and Shield
– 1x Grandweapons
5 x Vanguard-Hunters (100)**
– Boltstorm Pistols and Shock Handaxes
4 x Stormdrake Guard (680)*
– Drakerider’s Warblade
– Reinforced x 1
UNITS
6 x Gryph-Hounds (90)**
Endless Spells & Invocations
Dais Arcanum (20)
Holy Command: Call For Aid
Core Battalions
*Warlord – Artefact
**Battle Regiment
Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 109
Drops: 5
Joel’s a Stormcast Paragon, and he’s got a quite a doozy of a list here, and my pick is almost entirely off the back of Ionus, who I think is among the best heroes released in the last few years, because he does just about everything a single model can do:
- He can either auto-pray a prayer on a 6–in this case, Bless Weapons, Smite (which does D3 MWs to a Priest), Bless, or his Warscroll prayer–or pray twice. Prayers are already really good, and just doing it for free is bananas.
- At the start of each hero phase he can–on a 2+ dice roll–dispel an endless spell or invocation within 12″ of him. This is a very, VERY potent ability, since certain armies get very reliant on being able to offensively use spells to block movement, and with the odd invocation floating around it can really help neuter certain armies, like Khorne.
- He has a 12″ aura that disables Inspiring Presence and Rally.
- He has a breath attack that if it deals damage to a unit, you roll a dice at the end of each hero phase and if the roll is equal to or less than the current battle round number, that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds–the big kicker is it functions the same as Nurgle’s Disease mechanic, meaning if you want to get rid of it you have to waste healing to take it off, or else you just don’t heal at all.
- His Warscroll prayer can be a nuclear bomb if the dice are in your favor–basically pick an enemy unit within 18″ and it suffers D3 mortal wounds, then roll a dice. On a 3+, pick an enemy unit within 3″ and it takes D3 mortal wounds, and then repeat this process–on a 1-2 roll the sequence stops, and units can’t be hurt more than once by the prayer. Did you remember he can auto-pray?
Ionus is just the best, and he’s backed up by a flight of dragons and a smattering of support heroes and foot troops who are basically there to score tactics while dragons go do dragon things. I love SCE mostly because unless you fundamentally understand that scoring tactics reliably is more important in army composition than anything else, reading an SCE list otherwise feels like people just grabbing whatever random shit they have and putting it into a list. Joel, on the other hand, is a seasoned general in all things Stormcast, so I’m itching to see how it performs.
Coolest List: Alexander Krohn, Kharadron Overlords
– Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Urbaz
– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
– Triumph: Inspired
– Stick To The Code (Amendments): Trust To Your Guns
– Stick To The Code (Artycles): Master the Skies, Settle the Grudges
– Stick To The Code (Footnotes): There’s No Reward Without Risk
LEADERS
Bjorgen Thundrik (160)
Aetheric Navigator (100)*
– Artefacts of Power: Voidstone Orb
Lord-Ordinator (110)*
– Astral Hammers
Endrinmaster with Endrinharness (90)*
– General
– Command Traits: Stormcaller
– Artefacts of Power: Celestium Burst-grenade
BATTLELINE
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
– Sky Cannon
– Great Endrinworks: Coalbeard’s Collapsible Compartments
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Sky Cannon
Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
– Sky Cannon
OTHER
Thundrik’s Profiteers (160)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
– Artefact
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000
Drops: 14
Garth Merengi once said “Subtext is for Cowards” and I agree, so let me be clear: this list is some Grade-A knuckle dragging nonsense. Alex here probably saw the Flight of the Valkyries scene from Apocalypse Now and thought, “Hell yeah, I want to do that!”
So what does this list do? It shoots the fuck out of you is what it does–you’ve got NINE Gunhaulers flying around with Skycannons, all moving around an extra 2″ thanks to the Masters of the Skies Artycle and all of them get +1 to wound against one enemy unit picked after deployment. The real sauce is the Lord-Ordinator, who has a built-in warscroll ability which gives out +1 to hit for all ORDER War Machines wholly within 9″ of him. Now, of course, Alex here is going to be issuing ‘At the Double!’ pretty much every turn, just desperately trying to keep the Ordinator in buff range of the Gunhaulers, and if he dies the output of the army DRAMATICALLY drops, but it’s just too much fun to not try at least once, right?
Chaos, by Patrick Nevan
Welp apparently I just haven’t said enough about Cancon yet because it’s time to run my eye over the Chaos lists. As always Cancon is a fine representation of the Australian Meta’s tendency to go off on weird tangents and produce unusual freakshows. No one has been kind enough to produce one of those handy faction break down charts but back of the envelope, the most popular Chaos factions are Nurgle and Slaves to Darkness with eleven players each, followed by a bunch of white knuckle gamblers who won their bets on the Screaming Bell not getting a richly deserved nerf in time.
The comparison to LVO is quite interesting. Khorne is the most popular faction for the Americans but only 4 Australians could bring themselves to open that pile of garbage battletome, despite it being a popular faction that has never performed better on the table. I take it as proof of the superior taste of the antipodean gamer and a tribute to the virulence of my anti 3rd ed Khorne battletome campaign.
Anyways enough gloating, on with the show.
Power Pick: Jarrad Coots, Beasts of Chaos
Army Faction: Beasts of Chaos
– Subfaction: Darkwalkers
– Grand Strategy: Desecrating Brayherd
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS
Doombull (180)*
– General
– Command Traits: Bestial Cunning
– Artefacts of Power: Slitherwrack Helm
Great Bray-Shaman (100)**
– Artefacts of Power: Brayblast Trumpet
– Spells: Vicious Stranglethorns
Great Bray-Shaman (100)**
– Spells: Vicious Stranglethorns
Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Shaman (120)**
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard
BATTLELINE
Ungor Raiders (390)
– Halfhorn
– 3 x Brayhorn Blower
– 3 x Banner Bearer
Bullgors (630)*
– Warheard Drummer
– Warheard Banner Bearer
– Bloodkine
– Paired Cleaving Axes
Gors (110)*
– Banner Bearer
– Brayhorn Blower
– Paired Hacking Blades
Ungors (80)**
– Brayhorn Blower
– Halfhorn
– Gnarled Shortspear
OTHER
Ungor Raiders (130)
– Brayhorn Blower
– Banner Bearer
– Halfhorn
Cockatrice (120)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Wizard-finders of Andtor
**Warlord – Artefact
TOTAL POINTS: 1960/2000
Honestly this was a tough one. There were a bunch of Nurgle lists that could have made the grade but they were all missing that certain je ne sais quoi. I won’t pick any list with Belakor on pornhub thumbnail principles. Skaven aren’t an actual Chaos God and I flat out refuse to read Khorne lists. If I could have figured out what the fuck the Syll’Esske was doing in Terry Voller’s Slaanesh list I would have picked it.
In the end I went with a man rather than a list. For a long time Jarrad Coots has been known as the nicest man in Warhammer, a title he has earned with his unrelenting good cheer and consideration for all that cross his path. Nevertheless, experienced Coots watchers have noticed a few cracks in the wall of near supernatural good humor that cocoons him. Some say his recent experience dealing with timeouts as a TO broke him, I say the damage was already done by years of being dismissed as the human equivalent of a plush toy.
9 Bullgors, 30 Ungor raiders, does this look like the list of the nicest man in Warhammer or a mean-spirited cunt? He has Stranglethorns, a Slitherwrack helm, a Cockatrice and a unit of Gors just to make his opponent’s day as miserable as possible.
A man who takes Vicious Stranglethorns twice has spent a lot of time thinking about ruining your day. I bet he’s at home right now shaving his hair into a Mowhawk, listening to Death Metal and watching a loop of Hallway fight scenes from the Netflix Daredevil series.
In all seriousness I did a bit of back of the envelope math on this list and it can cripple my list in a turn. Yes it struggles with recursion. Yes it’s in trouble once it’s down on the table. But I have a feeling it may do better than expected in the meta. BOC have got a good Andtorian Locus game and Wizard Finding Bullgors slap pretty hard.
For reference here is the damage profile on 9 Bullgors (assuming only 6 of the 1″ Horns get in) against a Wizard with a 5++ ward:
This is assuming they hit on 4s and are swinging at rend -1. So if you do manage to get AOA off, or have some extra rend from your Herdstone, it’s all upside. Bear in mind that they do a further 9 mortal wounds on the charge (i.e. 6 more after Wards) and even on their worst day, they have a great chance of one-shotting Archaon.
Once you factor in Jarrod’s 100% first game win rate at competitive events he is a real chance to do well but win, lose or draw he is on a dark path and I pity the people who cross him at Cancon.
Coolest List: Travis Cooper, Slaves to Darkness
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Despoilers
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (150)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– General
– Command Trait: Bolstered by Chaos
– Daemonic Axe
– Artefact: Helm of Many Eyes
Ogroid Myrmidon (110)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
Sarrakkar Blackwing (180)*
– The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation
Exalted Hero of Chaos (90)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Axes of the Dark Champion
– Artefact: Hellfire Sword
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– The Lore of the Damned: Binding Damnation
Centaurion Marshal (130)**
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
BATTLELINE
10 x Chaos Warriors (180)**
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Hand Weapon & Shield
– Ensorcelled Banner: The Blasphemous Icon
– Aspiring Champion
– Standard Bearer
– Hornblower
9 x Untamed Beasts (80)**
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Heart-eater
– First Fang
– Rocktusk Prowler
9 x Untamed Beasts (80)**
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Heart-eater
– First Fang
– Rocktusk Prowler
UNITS
1 x Fomoroid Crusher (90)**
6 x Furies (80)**
6 x Ogroid Theridons (300)**
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Goroan Great Axe
– Thorakon
– Banner Bearer
– Charge-caller
6 x Ogroid Theridons (300)**
– Mark of Chaos: Undivided
– Goroan Great Axe
– Thorakon
– Banner Bearer
– Charge-caller
The Gnarlspirit Pack (0)*
CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord – Magnificent: Artefact
**Chaos Warband – Unified
TOTAL: 1950/2000
REINFORCED UNITS: 2/4
DROPS: 7
When I read this list my first thought was that someone has picked out all the garbage units in the Slaves to Darkness range that would be awesome to paint and built a list around them. Other than losing a bet why else would you put an Ogroid Myrmidon or a Centaurian Marshal in a list, never mind a Fomoroid Crusher? Then I had a look at the name on the list and realized the models in it were absolutely picked to be painted.
For those who don’t know Travis Cooper is an old time member of the Heralds of War, an integral part of what I guess we are now calling the first run of AOS Cancon and not incidentally one of the best painters in the country. I can give you a 100% Ironclad guarantee that this army will look amazing on the table. If you like your Chaos models seek it out, I know I will be.
Beyond that what we actually have as a list isn’t terrible. The basic idea of screening hard hitting units (Theridons) behind chaff (Untamed Beasts) never really goes out of fashion. With all the unmarked units floating around you will be throwing a lot of dice on the Eye of the Gods and there certainly are enough spare unmarked heroes to turn into demon princes. Throw in Sarrakar Blackwing and pals popping up when they aren’t wanted and hopefully Trav can rack up a few wins.
Death, by Sean Benson
Power Pick: Joel Graham, FEC
Allegiance: Flesh-eater Courts
– Grand Court: Gristlegore
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumphs:
LEADER:
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)*
– General
– Command Trait: Savage Strike
– Artefact: Ghurish Mawshard
– Mount Trait: Gruesome Bite
– Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Abhorrant Archregent (240)**
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Abhorrant Archregent (240)**
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Abhorrant Ghoul King (170)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Varghulf Courtier (160)*
– Artefact: The Bilious Decanter
BATTLELINE:
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)*
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)
OTHER:
6 x Crypt Horrors (220)
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Royal Beastflayers (230)
– Reinforced x 1
ENDLESS SPELLS:
Chalice of Ushoran (50)
CORE BATTALION:
*Warlord – Artefact
**Andtorian Acolytes
Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Wounds: 116
Drops: 10
This was a tough fought battle to finally come to this as my Power Pick, but I think what sent me down this path was the possibilities that occur when any FEC unit has Hoarfrost cast on it. A bit of a final farewell to the old book before the new one comes crashing into the meta, this list is a bit deceptive as the points cost says 2000, but really it’s like ~2500 off the jump (depending on choice of Summons of course). Joel is coming in hot with this list, will be summoning an extra quarter of an army ASAP and deleting as much as possible then settling in to cruise to victory sitting on circles. There are so many bodies coming in from every possible direction that it will be hard to find a way to fight against this list, especially even remotely fair. Definitely helps to have Joel piloting it and expect to see this list near the top tables all weekend.
Honourable Mentions to Plastic Craic’s very own Pat Neven’s Soulblight, Bob Van Emmerik’s Soulblight, Jasper Rowley’s OBR, and Christian Bugg’s FEC. I expect to see all of them doing well over the weekend, all bringing very solid contenders into the Cancon meta.
Coolest List: Ben Spinetti, SBGL
Ben always seems to find a way to enjoy the game as much as possible. Always painting, hobbying and list building into something that’s a little off the beaten path. This year the choice is Soulblight Monster Trucks, an Avengorii thematic list that’s straight off the pages of “Dynasty of Monsters” (great book btw). Lauka Vai, Vengo Lord, 2 Terrorgheists, a Zombie Dragon and a few things here and there to fill out points. Looks like an absolute blast to play and wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it pull a 3-2 for the weekend.
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
– Army Type: Avengorii
– Grand Strategy: Barren Icescape
– Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER
1 x Lauka Vai (300)
– Spells: Spirit Gale
1 x Vengorian Lord (300)*
– General
– Command Traits: Monstrous Might
– Artefacts: Breath of the Void Maw
– Spells: Vile Transference
1 x Vampire Lord (150)**
– Spells: Hoarfrost
BATTLELINE
6 x Vargheists (280)*
1 x Terrorgheist (240)**
1 x Terrorgheist (240)**
1 x Zombie Dragon (260)**
ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)
OTHER
3 x Fell Bats (90)*
3 x Fell Bats (90)*
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Vanguard
Total Points 1980 / 2000
So that’s a wrap! If we didn’t pick your list, we probably just hate you. Good luck to everyone involved, thank you to the new TOs for taking this on and safe journeys to all of you.
See you on the other side.
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.
Plastic Craic 
Ooh boy, I might need like 9 more Mancrushers!
LikeLiked by 1 person