AoS League Blog

A new scribe in the Hobby Henchmen blog space has appeared, and I will attempt to emulate the humour, and probably lack the insight provided in Sam's 40K league counterpart, but here we go.

The AoS league kicks off this February so I will provide some quick army list overviews as well as predictions for the initial rounds of games which have now been drawn.

We have a real mix of players so it should be a fun time!

Month 1 mission is Border War which is about as simple as a mission can be, 4 objectives with more points available for borders and opponent home objectives.

Pairings:

Matt (Cities of Sigmar) vs Mike (Stormcast)

Matt comes in with a very politically correct Cities list which brings together humans and dark elves. This includes the Lioness herself, Callis & Toll and their wizard murdering ways, some shooting, some cavalry and a sorceress.

Mike enters the fray with what looks like a strong ruination chamber element, lots of generically named dudes with ‘ors’ at the end of their name, the spectacular Ionus Cryptborn, and Joe’s favourite monster slayer Yndrasta who is going to be causing some major issues for most of the armies in the league.

Both players are running the Krondspine to provide another big threat to each other’s armies.

In terms of predictions, I have no idea exactly what Matt’s list is trying to do, and Mike has been playing a Nagash based OBR list in all the practices, so this could be anyone’s game. I’m going to plump for Mike 40-32 because if Yndrasta pops off she could tear through half Matt’s list by herself.

Aidan (Stormcast) vs Holly (Gitz)

Aidan is another man of mystery and I have only seen him playing Slaves to date at the club. Looking at his list we have another ruination chamber showing, with Krondys’ little (or big) brother Karazai as his big centrepiece. Another Krondspine enthusiast here also.

Holly is taking a break from painting beautiful minis to smash some faces with her Troggherd which she’s been getting some recent reps with.

Troggs inevitably provides a stat check and Holly’s characters provide big buffs to her army, and it will be up to Aidan to push through it. I’m going to say Holly’s list which might be a more cohesive one first up will win this one but it will be close, 42-36.

Callum (Gitz) vs Leo (Kruleboyz)

The first clash of the greenskins here, though Callum’s list has precisely 1 Goblin.

This is trolls: the list.

Leo has gone full herohammer with TWO vultures in the same regiment, a couple other bigger beasties, supported by some bit crossbows and some Gutrippaz for some sweet crit mortals.

The question here will be whether Leo’s back or his army’s back goes first, Troggs are incredibly hard to shift and the 5+ ward is going to bounce a lot of those crit mortals.

That said, I’ve not seen the Kruleboyz in action so I’m really excited to see how they go, it looks like a really fun list.

I think Callum wins this one 42-34, his bricks of trolls will prove really hard to shift but might struggle with board coverage.

Chris L (Sylvaneth) vs Alden (LRL)

The first iteration of Sylvaneth (and the start of my barking up the wrong tree puns from here out) has Chris bringing a list he has declared as one which will either blow out, or get blown out. Big beetle lady, beetle boy, and a selection of other Entish folk make up a list which ensures Chris will never get the choice of first turn, but will likely smash some stuff at times.

Alden is bringing a list with the Harry Potter himself, Teclis who auto casts all his spells, but looks fairly fragile if you can get to him. Stopping you doing that is some cavalry who as far as I can tell have infinite movement, so if you think you are out of their threat range, think again!

This could well be a blow out either way, if Alden’s cavalry can’t blow through models immediately I think Chris can weather the storm, especially as Alarielle can bring herself or others back each turn. Chris to win by by a whisker, 38-36

Jake (FEC) vs Joe (Maggotkin)

The match up that everyone wanted to see, everyone except Jake and Joe.

Maggotkin is not an ideal match up for the Courts, as disease turns off a lot of our recursion which we need to thrive, however 2 big blobs of Morbhegs will be a threat, along with some good access to fights first and fights last.

Joe’s list has the potential to be outmanoeuvred but he’s got 2 big chonky bois and his absolute favourite slug rider who can plant disease-giving trees all over the place.

Due to Joe’s list doing quite a bit to negate what the FEC do, I’m going for a narrow Nurgle victory, 40-34.

Dickie (Skaven) vs Pete (Fyreslayers)

Pete has a single game of AoS at 2K under his belt, and it turns out having a one-man wrecking ball of a unit can be quite good. Being able to bring all your manifestations down on a prayer roll of 2+ the whole time is also quite strong.

Dickie is bringing his monstrous menagerie which seems like a list with massive blowout potential as well. We’ve got an assortment of horrible beasties, some of whom can come back to life on death and have cheerleaders in mast moulders following them by their coattails.

However, Pete always sets up to blunt his opponent and his dwarves are a lot of bodies, and a lot of ward saves to chew through. Updates to bodyguard rules means those little legs can travel quite quickly now too and I think Dickie may end up getting a little smothered by angry redheads.

Pete to win 38-28

Craig (FEC) vs Tom (Draconian Skywing)

I’m bringing the last list I used after the FEC points drop when I discovered I could add a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist for 3 flayers, which seemed like a tasty trade.

Unfortunately for me, my opponent Tom has pulled out his dragon based top trumps and raised the winged beast count by 7. The list includes Krondys and Ionus along with lots of Stormdrake Guard.

This is sky vs ground in the ultimate pokemon battle of ravening ghouls and majestic dragons.

Armour is not great for FEC so I have to hope my volume of attacks and recursion does enough to try and stop Tom’s army which looks to be a cohesive force.

Prediction is Tom takes this one 42-34.

Kyle (Skaven) vs Lauren (Sylvaneth)

Another large rat enjoyer (NOT a pun) here, Kyle bringing his now tried and tested Thanquol and friends list which rocks 6 storm fiends and 6 rat ogres, with a Verminlord to boot as well. The most scary part of the list is the clan rats however, which if not killed in one sweep will NEVER die. Mark my words, friends.

Lauren brings a little more sanity with her wooden friends, with a more balanced list than Chris has. Alarielle the ever present is here (she’s too good to not include), along with a lady of vines who has a scary rampage and can dish out 5+ wards like it’s halloween. A reinforced unit of Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows can bring some real pain at 18” as well.

There are a couple of Treelords rounding off the list, one of which is down as an auxiliary unit instead of a regiment, which means Kyle will have an extra CP (perhaps an early wild card should be used to change that).

There is going to be some serious teleporting in this match, and with additional trees and gnawholes the board could be quite clogged, both players will need to be aware of giving their opponents terrain to charge to move up the board quickly!

This will be a close game, the Skaven can sometimes struggle into ward saves and healing, which might be enough to push them back. That said, Kyle is well drilled with this list and I think will have enough to scrape past 38-36.