Age of Sigmar May 2021 Atomic Hobby Tournament
I had the opportunity to have the winner/winners of the May Atomic Hobby AOS Tournament discuss there thoughts tactics and gameplay from this last weeks local tournament. If you are interesting in Lumineth or Slaves to Darkness Tactics this is the place to be.
Big shout out to Atomic Hobby Shop in Cypress Tx, for hosting another fine event. A big thanks to Andrew F. for running another great tournament!
Table of Contents
HHP link
This link is for the Harambe’s Heroes Podcast. They discuss the lists prior to the tournament:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95LvSFSs2vI&t=294s
Tournament Results
These following are the round breakdowns:
The tournament had 14 players many of whom are the top players in the city. Many of the lists are top tier and could be taken to a grand tournament.
However there could only be one overall winner and that was James W. I have known James for several years and had some of my very first AOS games playing him, “losing to him”. He is a great competitor and an established painter. Whenever you face James just know you are in for a tough fight even if he is bringing a “fluffy” list.
A few event pictures:
James List
Allegiance: Lumineth Realm Lords
– Great Nation: Iliatha
Leaders:
Scinari Cathallar (140)- General – Command Trait: Spellmaster – Artefact: Silver Wand – Lore of Hysh: Protection of Hysh
Scinari Cathallar (140)- Artefact: Simulacra Amulet – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse
Battleline:
20 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (240) – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light
20 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (240) – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (120) – Lore of Hysh: Ethereal Blessing
10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (120) – Lore of Hysh: Ethereal Blessing
5 x Vanari Dawnriders (130) – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
5 x Vanari Dawnriders (130) – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (140) – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (140) – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (140) – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (140) – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh
Battalions:
Auralan Legion (120) Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs Hyshian Twinstones (30)
Total: 1970 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 130
His army on the field:
Winning List Thoughts
I asked James to give me a little writeup about his thoughts on the tournament and his list. He was gracious enough to give everyone this valuable insight.
This is what he had to say:
“The first thing to say about this army is it is not what most people would think of as the typical “Lumineth Army.” It’s very noticeably lacking Teclis, but that’s how it was made! I was intrigued in making an army that focused around the Vanari, and the faction that fit that best was Iliatha. With that in mind, the army was built around the lore that every warrior fights alongside their clone twin, which to me meant that the army should be a mirror. This comes through the in the painting of the army, their shields, the heads on the models and poses, etc.
I wouldn’t recommend this army to anyone because painting that many Vanari Wardens is mind-breaking.
But since I managed to finish it, I’ve played it a few times and I’m very happy with how the army performs. While nothing in the army packs anything more than 1 damage a pop, the ability to split your army into two pieces and still function essentially the same is huge. The large number of mortal wound output and the large number of usually battleshock immune troops is hard for most armies to deal with as their board control presence is massive.
Hero phase can take awhile, but it’s important to buff the units appropriately. Since Power of Hysh is what I’m mostly casting with my spells, redundancy in the other spells, especially Speed of Hysh is very versatile and no one expects you to have your archers cast that spell to hurriedly send a unit of wardens across the field! Total eclipse from one Cathallar can shut down enemy command points while Protection of Hysh is nice if it goes off, but neither are critical to how the army plays.
Movement phase is usually moving the army in solid blocks that allow you to keep the army cohesion while pressing onto objectives. Lumineth often suffer from being boxed into their own territory, but this army rarely has that issue. The two units of dawnriders, one usually having speed to hysh to harry flanks early, also gets them in a fantastic position that the enemy HAS to deal with.
Shooting phase is, well, thirty-six arrows at 30” dealing a sizable amount of mortal wounds. It is scary to a lot of enemies, and rightly so! Having min sized units also allows for more flexibility in target choices, though out of LoS targets still have to be declared at the start of the shooting phase!
Charge and Combat phase often throw a lot of people off. Despite wardens being better receiving a charge, they hit like a truck when they make the charge. A unit of 20 wardens will almost always get all their attacks, and with Power of Hysh and the Illiatha command ability, they output a sizable amount of mortal wounds. And if the enemy should kill some models, well, the Cathallar just makes it that much worse for the enemy’s battleshock.
Overall the army plays most objectives very well with a sizable amount of models for board control, objective control, and mortal wounds to remove even tough enemies. It’s very flexible in what it can do and even if the chips are down the spells and abilities the army has can often overcome the odds.
The army has trouble on missions like Places of Arcane Power due to only two Leaders, but with so many Vanari around them, holding isn’t hard unless the enemy can kill the squishy ladies with ranged attacks. High ranged damage armies in general hurt this army as once the Sentinels are gone, it’s hard to pressure them back.
Game 1
Was against Gavin Grigar’s Beastclaw Raiders on Blood and Glory from the 2.0 Core book. Gavin had Boulderhead with two Stonehorn Huskards, two Thundertusk Huskards, a Thundertusk Beastrider unit, and a Skal battalion. I split my army into two halves and had it all deployed first due to the battalion. Gavin promptly put his entire army on one side of the field. I gave him first turn to mitigate a double turn, and he rolled fairly abysmally with his prayers and Thundertusk attacks. He barely made a charge into my Dawnriders but missed the wardens next to them and obliterated the poor horses on the charge.
On my turn I whittled down the Stonehorn and a Thundertusk, locking down the Thundertusk with darkness of the soul. I charged the Stonehorn with 10 wardens and… half died to metalcruncher and the rest whiffed, so dead unit. Thankfully I got the double turn and managed to barely down the Stonehorn with sentinels before locking down one of the Thundertusks again while moving the other half of my army to try and swing around. On his turn he failed a charge into my relief unit of wardens but destroyed my twenty block of wardens with little effort. It was looking grim until I won the roll off again.
We called the game there as the other unit of Dawnriders easily ran along the side of the board, killing Sabertusks and were in range to take his backfield objective. The relief unit of wardens + the remnants of a sentinel unit could easily reach my objective that only had one monster on it, meaning that I would win automatically based on how the mission is played. I only scored one secondary objective though as I couldn’t get cornered (my units kept dying!) and he got both of his objectives.
Game 2
Against Byran Lofton’s Daughters of Khaine on Total Conquest. He ran a Vyperic Guard in Hagg Nar with a Bloodwrack shrine, unit of 15 Blood Sisters, unit of 10 Blood Stalkers, unit of 5 blood stalkers, a Hag Queen on foot, and Morgwraeth. I made a rather interesting castle formation and just rolled with it, sending my Dawnriders to take both objectives, knowing they were going to die. I cast all of my spells that turn since he was too far away to dispel them, and I was able to take Morathi’s three wounds with sentinels and also kill Morgwraeth’s girls, meaning he could only take one of the objectives by sending over the Shadow Queen.
That’s exactly what he did, as well as using his once per battle free command ability for the Ironscale from the battalion and sent a fully buffed unit of blood sisters to murder my poor Dawnriders while Morathi did the same on another objective. He also sent the Bloodwrack shrine with Steed of Shadows over to the snakes to give the 5+ FNP buff and get the extra point for the mission. He had a hefty points lead after that!
I won the roll-off and took the turn, sending ten Wardens to take the objective back from Morathi while sending the other ten at the snakes and the twenty toward the shrine. It’s fair to say that the shrine was destroyed, Morathi suffered her wounds for the turn, and I got some more points. On his turn though his stalkers wiped out one of my Cathallars and he didn’t have the movement to get his Ironscale on the objective Morathi was one- she had better things to do, like get one of his secondary objectives, Pillage, while killing my poor unit of wardens. He did retake it with a small unit of Stalkers, however. On the other side of the board, he whittled down my twenty block and Morathi-khaine came in to destroy the rest. The Blood Sisters killed the four (admittedly super lucky due to good saves last turn) Wardens, but they took damage before they did. And Morathi-Khaine left two wardens in her unit alive.
Wholly within 18” of a Cathallar.
Needless to say those snakes ran away, meaning he did not take that objective back that turn.
He managed to get the double turn and killed my other Cathallar, and got a significant number of points due to his heroes and Morathi killing a unit of Sentinels. On my turn I sent my fresh unit of twenty wardens forward to attack his line that he was using to block his back objective, crushing all his remaining snakes in one go while reclaiming both side objectives. His next turn he couldn’t do anything but try to mitigate, however a good charge allowed me to take his back objective and by then I had made enough of a points lead that the next turn didn’t matter who did what.
Game could have been incredibly close, but a clutch Cathallar saved the day and we both scored our secondaries.
Game 3
Featured Kevin Rand’s Ossiarch Bonereapers on Battle for the Pass. Due to the number of players and my low score on secondaries, I got paired down since I’d already played Gavin. Kevin and I just played each other the last game in the last tournament on this very mission and I was dreading it, although last time I had Archaon and friends and well, they can’t really break Mortek very easily. His list was Mortis Praetorians with Katakros, two units of twenty Mortek, two Harvesters, two crawlers, and a unit of Deathriders.
I gave him the first turn, knowing if he got a double I was just screwed. He, of course, promptly destroyed two units of sentinels with his crawlers. On my turn I got almost all my spells off and moved forward in shining company save for a unit of Dawnriders moving up the flanks that had Speed of Hysh. This unit likely changed the entire game as they charged his Deathriders with just enough movement to reach one of his crawlers and tag it in. I did some really good damage to those Deathriders and their return blows I shrugged off while a Harvester took a few plinks from arrows, though I didn’t score any points save the one in by backfield.
What likely decided the game for me was the double turn here. I sent my other unit of Dawnriders to tie up his second crawler by squeezing past his Mortek (thanks 28” of movement) and whittling down one of the harvesters. I charged 30 wardens into the harvester+ Mortek block and killed the harvester with my 3” reach weapons, then went to town on the Mortek, having the numbers to reclaim the objective while I moved up an snagged the side objective with his other Mortek, staying in shining with ethereal blessing on. Unfortunately for him, the crawler, my fresh unit of Dawnriders was on his back objective… and I now had 5 models on it to his two. A huge swing of points for me.
His turn he only option was to turn his harvester around and free up a crawler while Katakros freed up the other one. His Mortek were all but destroyed on one objective and the others used their numbers to take back the other one. I got the next turn and the combined might of thirty wardens destroyed the Mortek through sheer weight of mortal wounds. His turn he came in with Katakros and a harvester on both ends but there was no way he could possibly take the objectives back, nor score his secondaries as my general hid behind a wall and was totally out of LoS.
I ended with full points and tied for first with Chris Creech. Due to strength of schedule I won first place and he got best painted. It was a lot of tough games and match-ups I dreaded, but the sheer numbers of Vanari and mortal wound output was able to carry me through. Never let anyone tell you that Wardens aren’t good on the charge! Hopefully I can post similar numbers with the army at the Atlantic City Open next month and the Lone Star GT the month after!”
Very nice recap of the event! Thank you James for the wonderful feedback. There you have it, go out and buy 60 Wardens right now!
Few more event pictures:
Chris Creech
The runner up at the event was Chris Creech. I have known Chris a few year, he is a very fun opponent to play and everyone speaks very highly of him in the local community.
The list
Allegiance: Khorne
– Slaughterhost: The Bloodlords
LEADERS
Chaos Lord (110)
– Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
Chaos Lord on Manticore (280)
– General
– Command Trait: Slaughterer’s Thirst
– Blade & Lance
– Artefact: Halo of Blood
Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (230)
– Artefact: Gorecleaver
Bloodstoker (80)
Slaughterpriest (100)
– Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy
UNITS
15 x Chaos Warriors (270)
– Hand Weapon & Shield
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
– Pair of Hand Weapons
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
– Pair of Hand Weapons
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
5 x Chaos Knights (160)
– Ensorcelled Weapons
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
5 x Chaos Knights (160)
– Cursed Lance
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
BEHEMOTHS
Chaos Warshrine (170)
– Blood Blessing: Bronzed Flesh
BATTALIONS
Bloodmarked Warband (180)
ENDLESS SPELLS / TERRAIN / COMMAND POINTS
Bleeding Icon (40)
Hexgorger Skulls (40)
TOTAL: 2000
Pictures of Chris’s Army
I asked him to give us a little overview of his thoughts and this is what he had to say;
“Attached is the list that I took to the Atomic tournament 5/8/21 and went 3-0. James West went 3-0 with his beautiful Lumineth army as well, so it came down to tournament points, and ironically we both scored 37 points, so then it went to the next tie breaker which was our opponents strength of schedule, which he got me on.