Liam Burnett-Blue interviewed by Zak Rockman

Let’s hear it for Liam! Mr Burnett-Blue, The Villain of Australian AOS, recently took out Cancon with a scintillating 8-0 performance, and he’s here today to spill the beans.

Hang on, didn’t Joel McGrath win Cancon?

Well. Cancon has a huge playerbase generating multiple 5-0s, and as such it is the only event in Australia that has a Day 3 elimination bracket, where the Top 8 players are invited to play off for a final winner. This is only the second year it’s happened, and not everybody takes up the invite: Joel for example was already committed to the AOS Doubles event, which also takes place on Day 3, and where he and Pat Nevan had a title to defend.

“Best Overall” at the event is awarded at the end of Day 2 to the person with the best combination of gaming and soft scores, and that’s what Joel won with his 5-0 Sons of Behemat and a Painting Nom. Liam went on to win the Top 8 bracket, taking on the best of the best on Day 3 and coming out on top, and that’s what we’re here to celebrate today.

The List: “Fuck the Hero Phase”

2000/2000 pts
—–
Grand Alliance Order | Idoneth Deepkin | Akhelian Beastmasters
Drops: 2
—–
General’s Regiment
Mr Sorry not Sorry- Eidolon of Mathlann, Aspect of the Storm (320)
• General
• Ancient Pride
• Armour of the Cythai
Akhelian Leviadon (480)
Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (340)
• Reinforced
Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (170)
Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (170)
—
Regiment 1
“I’m here doing side quests” – Akhelian King (160)
Don’t mind us nothing to see here PT1 – Akhelian Allopex (180)
• 1 Razorshell Harpoon
Don’t mind us nothing to see here PT2 – Akhelian Allopex (180)
• 1 Razorshell Harpoon
—–
Faction Terrain
Gloomtide Shipwreck
—–

ZR: First off Liam, Congratulations on going 8-0 at Cancon this year. A lot of surprise to see IDK taking the top spot this year, can you talk me through your list and the thoughts behind it? Did you look at some alternative choices such as Narmarti Reavers or Aspect of the Sea?

When I first picked up Idoneth in AOS4, I experimented with Soulraid ambushers using a block of twenty Reavers and two blocks of ten with a Soulscryer, and playing around with deepstriking onto the board, doing some shooting and then going back into deepstrike. This list also had a hero phase with one cast, however I found myself only having one decent spell (Steed of Tides) which was strong and had its uses. But with no bonuses to cast outside of a Place of Power, using Magical Intervention required a 7 on the dice and was a bit too unreliable. So from this, I shifted the focus to getting higher DPS and speed into my army and really leaning into my strengths, eventually dropping the Soulscryer and Reavers for two sharks and the Akhelian King. This sort of list was much more my type of playstyle because I get to fight you, and you don’t get to fight me.

In my early days of playing IDK in fourth edition, I looked at using Sea Bro, and he was a great defensive piece.  He is strong at denying tactics with his native +1 to cast for Magical Intervention and has significant board presence via the IDK spell lore and manifestations. I am currently back to playtesting Sea Bro as I am focusing on teams once again, however with the new book around the corner, I am holding back a bit.

Aspect of the Storm is there to be an annoying piece of shit, aiming to use him as a screen because of the artefact (Armour of the Cythai – Ignore all weapon abilites other than Companion) and heroic trait (Ancient Pride – can only be hit on 4s). He is extremely tanky, with a 3+ Save and 5+ ward meaning he provides a significant road block.

I had also formatted my regiments with how I like to play my list and maximising the battle trait Ethersea Voyagers which lets you put a regiment into deepstrike. So, my second regiment with the King and sharks were off the board to increase board presence, score battle tactics and be annoying. Also this gave me the option to drop the King near a Place of Power to stop an opponent’s key spells or banish manifestations.

The Leviadon also makes the army a lot tougher, and paired with the -1 to hit from Low Tide, the ship’s +1 to save aura and the 5++ ward from the turtle, this army is extremely rugged. This list has three hammers (Storm Bro, Turtle and 6 Eels) making Be’lakor’s ability a lot less useful in this matchup as there are still two units putting in significant work.

So this army is deceptively durable and I found that the lack of magic didn’t come into play because of how I was positioned and how I utilised my units.

The list also abuses the Power Through command as well.  A lot of the models have more wounds than my opponent’s, so if something takes a massive hit you can move back and start to Rally over 1-2 turns, and then hit again with a full-strength unit.

ZR: I published an article recently about whether it’s even worth deploying your faction terrain in some matchups, because it can feed your opponent charges and Battle Tactics.  Help me out here, did you ever choose to leave your Shipwreck off the table?

No, because I used it to make choke points and funnel enemy units in. That way they can’t get everything where it needs to be and I could create No-Go zones

ZR: YOU’RE KILLING ME!  In hindsight, what changes would you consider for your list?

Not much – maybe the sharks, I would love to swap in one unit of Ishlaen Guard.

ZR: What was the best play you saw from an opponent?

In round 2 of the Top 8 I was up against Alastair with Skaven.

I chose Do Not Waver as my tactic as he gave me the turn. This didn’t change much of my plan, however seeing it in action was impressive and I even applauded him for it as I was very shocked:

• Alastair used his Three Claw Steps move with his Clan Rats to make a large circle. This circle is important as it was all one line of Clan Rats, still in coherency.
• I shot it with my sharks and my 3″ charge to fly over then became a 10″ charge, as once he removed one Clan Rat he broke coherency and snapped down to 6 models. So I was very impressed as I don’t think I’ve seen many Skaven players do this.

ZR: Nice! Was there anything in the meta at the moment that you consider to be underrepresented?

Idoneth and DOK are underrepresented due to niche style of play and models. I honestly expected more BOC and maybe a couple more SoB players. Besides that, Australia is always going to have production meta issues where you and I see the meta 2-3 months ahead thanks to TTS tournaments, yet we don’t see it in AUS till much later.

ZR: True. So did you build your list around the current meta? Were there matchups you were concerned about?

LOL not really, but I had in mind the 3+ save meta that was booming with Chosen, Stormcast and such running around. The eels have anti infantry, the turtle has mortals so there are tools to handle it. I did have them on my mind.

I went anti Monster tech with the high damage shooting to deal with Dragons, Kragnos and such that have always been annoying. I don’t expect to wipe them out with the shooting, but the threat is there, meaning that they can’t just move forward freely.

Overall my list writing was very much the thought of “I’m in a hot tin shed in summer, how smooth brain can I go?”

ZR: So give me a rundown of first 5 rounds and what were your highlights.

Everyone I played was super lovely. In Round 1, I played Coots with Ironjawz and he is a legend. It was an interesting game, he didn’t play the game how I expected. He kept teleporting Ardboys around and being annoying. We had great amounts of laughs and gave me a run for my money as there was a path to victory for him, but I managed to shut it down.

Round 2 was against Kirra with Nighthaunt, a super lovely person to play against and who had only just started playing Age of Sigmar. We talked a lot about rules and strategies both during and post-game which I think she really appreciated and benefitted from.

Round 3 I played Troy with Slaves to Darkness who was also super lovely, we had a great game. He left his Gaunt Summoner behind a building with his 10 Chosen still in the Silver Tower, giving me a chance to take a double and kill him, meaning he also lost his 10 Chosen which basically ended the game there.

Round 4 was against Jordan and his Nurgle, and we managed to have a really fun game. We talked about what could have been done differently and other strategies. I feel some of my sports scores came from the conversation “Yes I won, but this is what you could’ve done differently.” This meant that most of my games turned into a coaching session afterwards.

Round 5 was against my close mate Jasper and his Ossiarch Bonereapers.  We called it around the bottom of 2, he was a great sport and we talked about it a lot after the game. Funnily enough, we also played prior at a one dayer and we tied. This was a game of cat and mouse but I had a big spike which ended the game there.

So overall I made 3 new friends and kept 2 of my old friends. Had a great time and didn’t leave any games on a bad note.

ZR: So with you scoring sports votes does this mean you are no longer the villain of Age of Sigmar?

Liam: Nah the nickname has still stuck and I am now the smiling villain.

ZR: After a strong Day 1 and 2, let’s go through Day 3 with everything on the line. Talk me through your first match-up against Nighthaunt. What were your key thoughts before playing the game, what strategies did you use and how did the game go?

Round 1, Day 3: Benji Law (Nighthaunt)

“Cancon Fair and Balanced NH” 2000/2000 pts
—–
Grand Alliance Death | Nighthaunt | Death Stalkers
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of the Underworlds
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy
—–
General’s Regiment
Guardian of Souls (150)
• General
• Ruler of the Spectral Hosts
• Lightshard of the Harvest Moon
Bladegheist Revenants (360)
• Reinforced
Dreadscythe Harridans (170)
Grimghast Reapers (150)
—
Regiment 1
Reikenor the Grimhailer (240)
Bladegheist Revenants (360)
• Reinforced
Dreadblade Harrows (170)
Hexwraiths (400)
• Reinforced
—–

Benji and I met and he had never played against Deepkin (in fact a lot of players hadn’t played Deepkin in 4.0) and I can explain the rules, but it’s definitely an army you need to play against.

What I noted about his list was that it was pretty wound dense and didn’t scare me as much due to not having the boat man, so I was able to keep the game how I like to play, on my terms.

The mission we were playing was Battle for the Pass where you can’t score Take the Flanks early, so the turn one battle tactic for people can be difficult and I used my Gloomtides to create choke points and force his army into favourable positions. Since we were both 2 drops and he won the roll off for deployment, he had deployed his army first and I noticed that his hero with the resurrection trait was vulnerable to a turn one alpha, so I could use my shark to shoot and kill that hero.

This forced him to take the first turn to rectify his deployment mistake. With this awkward mission deployment he was forced to Take their Land turn one and I got the redeploy to deny this tactic. After winning turn three Prio and taking the double ended the game, I feel like that game was heavily decided on their lack of experience into Deepkin. Super lovely opponent.

Round 2, Day 3: Alastair Ashley (Skaven)

ZR: Looking at a very unique Skaven list, what was your mindset going into this game? What were your key takeaways before playing the game? What strategies did you use, and how did the game go?

Cult of the Horned Rat in Yellow 1980/2000 pts
—–
Grand Alliance Chaos | Skaven | Warpcog Convocation
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of Ruin
Manifestation Lore – Forbidden Power
—–
General’s Regiment
Krittok Foulblade (180)
• General
Stormvermin (240)
• Reinforced
—
Regiment 1
Verminlord Warpseer (340)
• Warpstone Charm
• Scurry Away
Clanrats (150)
Clanrats (150)
Ratling Guns (340)
• Reinforced
—
Regiment 2
Grey Seer (120)
Acolyte Globadiers (200)
• Reinforced
Doom-Flayers (260)
• Reinforced
—–
Faction Terrain
Gnawhole

This was a very different match-up from the Skaven I’m used to seeing (18 Ratling Guns … probably).

So this list was extremely interesting as he had a bunch of units that I haven’t seen before, but he also suffered from some lack of experience into Deepkin.

After I worked out my opponent’s threat ranges, I backboarded and just waited to go in. He had a really nice play of trying to deny my turn 1 tactic of Take the Flanks: he managed to block off one side of the board with a Gnawhole and a unit. However, with High Tide, I had done enough damage to leave him with little by end of turn 3. I spent my turn 4 just killing Gnawholes to prevent him from bringing units back and denying points for the last 2 battle rounds. I really respected Allister as a player, and he is definitely a new up-and-comer and one to watch.

Round 3, Day 3: Jacob Strachan (Lumineth)

ZR: All right this is it, Lumineth have been on a bit of a decline since the changes to the Windchargers, so this was matchup of the underrepresented Aelves for all the glory. How did you feel going into this? What was your game plan?

Ell 1980/2000 pts
Lumineth Realm-lords | Hurakan Temple
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Hysh
Manifestation Lore – Forbidden Power
General’s Regiment
Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages (280)
• General
Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (250)
Hurakan Windchargers (360)
• Reinforced
Vanari Auralan Sentinels (320)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Scinari Enlightener (190)
• Masterful Tactician
• Silver Wand
Vanari Bladelords (280)
• Reinforced
Vanari Bladelords (140)
Ydrilan Riverblades (160)
Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor

Jacob and I have always missed each other – even though we have always had similar results, we just haven’t played yet. It was super cool that we got to play for all the marbles in round 8.

He had a very unique and mixed bag LRL list and this game came down to faction knowledge and each player’s mastery of their list.

I had two points of gameplan in this matchup:

1. Cripple the Windchargers
2. Cripple the Bladelords

Then he would struggle to get enough damage through to win the game. One of the side quests was to kill off the Wind Spirit to deny some of his tech and tactics. Speaking with Jacob after the game, he wanted the Bladelords in combat early to try and do as much damage as possible. Which is interesting as I also wanted to get in combat to hit the Bladelords early.

He took Seize turn 1 and shuffled his army forward. In this match up I was particularly concerned about Overwhelming Heat as it can significantly hinder my army. So I looked at the Places of Power and where to put my king down for a boosted unbind. He tried to do a lot of damage – but Rally got most of it back.

Turn 2 was the tipping point as I had Overwhelming Heat on my Storm Bro so I went all in and pushed everything in. I failed a 4 inch charge into the Wind Spirit which really sucked as I didn’t have a reroll – I was saving it for the Storm Bro so in hindsight I should’ve attempted his charge first. I took the double into 2 and I crippled the Windchargers down to one model left on 1 wound, leaving it as a tactic scorer with no capacity for doing any real damage. Throughout the game, I was always thinking ahead to my next turn and where I needed models to be.

Turn 3 he took a double back into me. The Sentinels were by now pushed into their back corner, but they did enough damage to leave Storm Bro on 4 wounds. I counter charged the Leviadon into combat as I had High Tide and managed to deal a crippling blow in his turn – which swung the game back to me. In my own turn 3, my Storm Bro finally died (first time all event) as the raw MW output from the Bladelords managed to get him.

Turn 4 was a huge Prio roll as if I won, it would’ve been game right there, but he won it. He ended up doing less damage than expected though. In my own turn 4, I was looking at my tactics including my options for turn 5 tactics if he didn’t have an army left for me to hit. There wasn’t a lot, so I looked at his tactics he had left, and targeted his units that would be able to score them. So I chose to ignore his Sentinels despite their killing threat, scored out and I can’t believe I managed to go 8-0 with that list.

We both knew our armies so well and it felt like we were speaking a different language. At one point the TO said “I have no idea what’s going on, but I am glad that you two do.”

---

After going to so many Cancons since the start of my AoS competitive career, it’s honestly special to take it out, especially with an army that doesn’t usually get looked at. 

Shoutouts to my gaming crew Exiles. Tom Rands and Jasper Rowley, they are my usual competitive play testers, so without them, I probably wouldn’t be on my A Game. Chris Welfare, he’s another regular opponent of mine who also lent me the army to take to Cancon, so very much appreciate him. 

And finally Zak Rockman, my adopted son, who has to be a punching bag every now and then for me.

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