Age of SigmarBattle ReportsGeneral wargamingTournaments/Competitive

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!

 

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

aos tournament results may

aos tournament results may

These following are the round breakdowns:

aos tournament results may aos tournament results may aos tournament results may 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:

atomic sigmar tournament may 2021 atomic sigmar tournament may 2021

atomic sigmar tournament may 2021atomic sigmar tournament may 2021 atomic sigmar tournament may 2021

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:

atomic sigmar tournament may 2021
Look at that spread!
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:

atomic sigmar tournament may 2021

atomic sigmar tournament may 2021

atomic sigmar tournament may 2021

 

 

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

Vampire tyranid kitbash vampire chaos kitbash Chaos vampire kitbash

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.

That being said I cannot say enough how happy I am with how this list performed, mainly because the list is first and foremost based on a custom narrative army I developed. House Corvent is a custom Vampire coven I developed with the idea that the founder (Duntov Von Corvent) was approached by Khorne after some rather bloodthirsty combat offering Duntov and his house freedom from the grasp of Nagash, in return they must kill in the name of Khorne.
The List Overview
As mentioned I based this list around models I wanted to play and the lore I wrote for them, however I wanted to take them to tournaments and not get totally stomped. The first thing that I wanted to look at was how to reduce my drop count. Currently in AoS 2.0, having low drops and reliably dictating turn order is a huge thing for most armies. I’m not a huge fan of the battalions in the Blades of Khorne book, there are a couple I like but not love. However the Bloodmarked Warband from the Slaves to Darkness book includes a total of 9 units, which can cover most, if not all of your drops however this comes at a hefty price of 180 points. The bonus you get out of this battalion is if any Hero in the battalion kills a model then you can select a unit in the battalion to get +1 attack until the start of my next Hero Phase. The bonus is alright, certainly not worth 180 points but it’s just a bonus for allowing me to have a low drop army. As you can see from the list I have settled on a 3 drop list. The only things not in the battalion are the Bloodstoker and the Slaughterpriest.
How I use this list 
At a quick glance someone might find it strange that I’m using The Bloodlords Slaughterhost, which focuses on buffing demons in a list that uses zero demons. After reading the Blades of Khorne FAQ, I noticed they changed the wording so that the first Hero in a  BloodIords army to receive an artifact does not have to be a Demon. The Artifact from that Slaughterhost is the “Halo of Blood” and allows the bearer to fight at the start of the combat phase. The command trait “Slaughterer’s Thirst” adds 4″ to the Generals movement and allows the General to re-roll charge rolls. You put all of these things on a Chaos Lord on Manticore and all of a sudden you have a 16″ moving Manticore that if whipped from the bloodstoker charges 2d6+3″ and can re-roll the charge roll for free due to the command trait. The Chaos Lord on Manticore is equipped with the sword and lance, so there is mortal wound potential from the sword and -2 rend 3 dmg a piece lance strikes and then of course the Manticore has a decent profile too. All of that is pretty good, but then you add in the Chaos Warshrine prayer that allows you to re-roll all hit and wound rolls (Favour of Chaos) and you have A LOT of damage potential with a pretty big threat range. If that isn’t enough, the Chaos Lord on foot has a command ability that you use at the start of the combat phase and can select a Slaves to Darkness unit wholly within 12″ to be chosen to fight again. Meaning if it is my turn the Chaos Lord on Manticore fights at the start of the combat phase and then my first “normal” pick can be the Chaos Lord on Manticore again. I also run Bronzed Flesh (+1 Save) and Killing Frenzy (+1 to hit) that I can throw on my General but usually I put the Bronzed Flesh on my 15 man unit of Chaos Warriors, since they get to re-roll ALL save rolls while they have 10 or more models in the unit. So all of a sudden I have a 15 man unit with 30 wounds with a 3+ save, re-rolling ALL saves, 5+ Mortal Wound shrug and if they’re near the Warshrine they have a 6+ shrug on normal damage. That makes for one heck of an anvil unit. Then I will usually have the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak escorted by two units of 5 Chaos Knights push on a flank opposite of the 15 man Chaos Warrior unit. Now all of this sounds great on paper, but we all know that doesn’t always translate over to the table top. I have ran this list a handful of times against a couple of friends and it actually worked out really well. My first true tournament with this list was also my first two day tournament ever, the Harambe Heroes tournament back in March of this year where I went 3-1-1. My only loss was my first game to Evan Miller and his Trolls. My tie was with an Ironjawz dual Mawcrusha list. My three wins were against Sons of Behemat, Lumineth Realm Lords with Teclis and a Seraphon list using a ton of Stegadons. My next tournament after the Harambe Heroes tournament was at Atomic on May 8th.
Atomic Tournament 5/8/21
This was a one day tournament with 3 games. I wanted to take the same list since Gravelords are coming out this month. It may be the last time I play Khorne for a while. The lists at the tournament were Kharadron Overlords, Daughters of Khaine, Sons of Behemat, Legion of Night, Legion of Azgorh, Ogor Mawtribes, two Ossiarch Bonereaper armies, two Lumineth Realm Lords armies, Disciples of Tzeentch, Blades of Khorne and Seraphon.
Game 1
Was Blood and Glory from the core rule book. There are four objectives on the game board and starting from the 3rd battle round if you control all four objectives you immediately win. My opponent was a grudge match against Dillon Garner. He was also playing Blades of Khorne, and I thought it would be a fun Khorne vs. Khorne match up. Dillon’s list was a Khorne mortals list too, the biggest threat was a unit of 10 Skullreapers, these guys get a bunch of attacks when buffed (battalion bonus and bloodsecrator) and can deal mortals on 6s to hit, on top of that they can do mortal wounds when they die and never have to take battleshock. This was the biggest threat and my strategy was to avoid the fight if possible. We had a Hexgorgor Skull stare down for two and a half turns (see attached picture) which was just hilarious. The Chaos Lord on Manticore did serious work on one flank while predictably his Skullreapers tore through my other flank with the Chaos Knights. fortunately I was able to get a sneaky bloodletter summon in battle round 4 to take the last objective allowing me to win. Overall this was a fairly close fight and since we didn’t actually score Victory Points, I had to be careful about unit placement and what I engaged and when.
Game 2
Was Total Conquest against Kyle Corcoran playing a 2 drop Disciples of Tzeentch Changehost, Eternal Conflagration list. Ironically the only other time I’ve played against Tzeentch was over a year ago against TheJTJ using a very similar list. In that game JTJ had me go first and I got double turned and more than half my army was gone before my second turn, so I was fully aware of what might happen in this game. To no surprise I was given the first turn, I played fairly conservatively since there are only four objectives and you score 1 VP for each objective you control, 2 VPs instead if you took control of it from your opponent and a bonus VP if you have a Leader within 6″ of an objective while you control it. On Kyle’s first turn he dealt serious damage to some of my Chaos Knights. Then the roll off for initiative happened and I got double turned. I was starting to have PTSD from the game I had against JT. In Kyles turn 2 he wiped out all my Chaos Knights and my Chaos Lord on Karkadrak. Things were looking terrible. On my turn 2 I was able to get a sneaky blood bind off and forced his Lord of Change to move 6″ towards me. This allowed my super buffed Chaos Lord on Manticore to fly in, fight twice and kill his Lord of Change (see attached picture). I then got the double turn going into Turn 3 and killed a unit of his flamers and a unit of Horrors. What ultimately sealed the game for me was having my 15 man unit of Chaos Warriors with Bronzed Flesh tie up his large Horror unit that could no longer teleport now that his Lord of Change was dead and then I summoned in a large unit of Bloodletters on one of his back objectives. Kyle played his list well but I had a little bit of luck on my side this game and things just seemed to fall into place for me.
Game 3
Battle for the Pass against Evan Miller, the one person I lost to at the two-day Harambe Heroes Tournament. However this time he was playing Legion of Azgorh, a faction I had absolutely no idea what it did. I did some quick research and chatted with him before the game and basically Legion of Azgorh does a lot of shooting and a ton of mortal wounds. Fortunately most of my army has a natural 5+ mortal wound shrug, so I was feeling OK about the mortal wounds. His list was 9 drops so I knew I was going to make him go first. I deployed my Chaos Lord on Manticore and most of my Heroes deep in my deployment zone so he couldn’t shoot my important things turn 1. In my first turn I had my Knights tie up one flank of his army while the Manticore moved up behind them. I won the priority roll and took the double turn. My super buffed Chaos Lord on Manticore charged in and fought twice, killing a ton of models. On the other flank my 15 man Chaos Warrior unit and one of my 5 man Chaos Warrior units made saves out of their mind and tied his army up on that side for most of the game. Between getting the double turn from turn 1 to turn 2 and making above average armor saves I was able to hold back Legion of Azgorh to secure the victory, getting my first undefeated tournament.
Closing thoughts
For me, Age of Sigmar is just as much about the hobbying aspect, lore and community as it is an actual game you play with (against) someone. Due to this, I build my lists based on things I want to play and oftentimes I do a lot of kitbashing and custom modeling, so I’m fully aware what I play is far from meta for most tournaments. The fact that this list has performed well in the two tournaments I’ve played in, has really made me quite happy. Next up for me will be shifting focus to Soulblight Gravelords, since it was announced that they will be going up for preorder May 15th. My goal will be to hopefully have a Gravelords army on the table for the June Atomic tournament. It might be composed of a lot of old skeletons, zombies or dire wolves but at least I’ll have a new book for Vampires very soon!
Thanks,
Chris
I am looking forward to seeing Chris at that June tournament. I will probably be running OBR, however I may also bring to the table 120 old style Skeleton Warriors.
This has been some really great insight from two outstanding AOS players here in the Houston area.
I hope this article gave you some insight into these armies and possibly inspired you to try one of these lists out.
Thanks for reading, Y’all be good.

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