Three events to cover this week, but I'm doing something a little bit different with the first two showdowns for my sanity's sake. Still some cool stuff to dig into so let's go!

Sydney GT 2023

100-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Sydney, Australia on September 09 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Spring the Trap

Adam Bajjada - Gnarlroot:

vs.

Bob Van Emmerik - Legion of Night:

Thoughts

Gotta say, not a big fan of this trend of players self-annotating their lists. I love the intent of improving rules understanding and clarity for players who might be unfamiliar, but there's the risk of players getting rules wrong when this happens, not to mention I know of several TOs who manually verify list who find this practice frustrating as it makes their jobs harder.

Anyway, aside over - this Sylvaneth list is a fun one to look at. Drycha, the Kurnoth and the Treelord give the army a respectable selection of combat pieces, with Drycha in particular being a beast at stripping levels off Bob's Incarnate, safely at range. The roots that would anchor this list to the middle (had to pun, had to) are the Dryads and the Lady of Vines - in an ideal world, said Dryads are -1 to hit and wound in the combat phase, as well as benefiting from the LoV's 5+ ward. Said ward was previously not reliable, but the Acolytes battalion gives the concept a much needed boost.

Going up against it is the standard LoN hero shell, but with a much more varied selection of units to supplement them. Grave Guard are still amazing, but their representation in the metagame has fallen off as of late in favour of simply more zombies or more specialised units. Bob however seems to want to bring a bit of everything in his collection, opting for 20 of them, only 20 Zombies and some Fellbats. The meat of this list however is in the 30 Skeletons and the Incarnate. The Incarnate of course is difficult for most armies to shift, but that's not what I think is ultimately the most important here.

The Skeletons are going to be really difficult for Adam to overcome if they're able to get onto a contested objective - even if the Kurnoth are hitting/wounding on 2s and manage to get rend 2 (either by Hoarfrost or Treesong), they won't be able to kill the Skeletons from full health in one combat activation provided they're using All-out Defence. Adam could commit more than one unit to the task, but then said units can't all pull back and leave themselves open to the many other tools in Bob's box.

I think what doesn't help matters here is Spring the Trap, which is going to reward blobbing in the middle, and with only 3 objectives along the central line, Adam will have to come out of his deployment zone and that plays right into Bob's hands.

Result

Legion of Night - Major Victory 20 - 12

Joel Graham - Fangs of Sotek - 1st Place

Credit: JarloftheMoose

The List

Archetype

Slann castle with Gotrek

Thoughts

First off - I appreciate the honesty and clarity provided by the TO in retroactively amending the list to discuss the issue identified in list construction (Gotrek can't go in Wizard-Finders of Adntor). Well done to Anthony. Also, I opted not to feature Joel's matchup in the showdown, both because it wasn't actually the top table round five (that was the above matchup), but also because his final matchup was against Katakros and the dull myriad and I've had enough of discussing that list for now.

Gotrek is an interesting inclusion over the Incarnate, as he gives the army some serious punch against elite combat armies that rely on multi-damage hammers like Immortis Guard, Stalkers, Kurnoth etc. He's subsequently quite fragile against armies that just want to throw a billion dice at you, like Soulblight summonable armies, but this calculated risk in list construction has paid off handsomely for Joel here. As it stands, the only horde army he faced all weekend was Steven Nuttall's, who didn't have any reinforced Zombie units (his best dice option being 20 Grave Guard), and thus probably struggled to drown Gotrek under enough dice to kill him easily.

The rest of the list is fairly standard Starborne fare - it's all power projection from the inner castle, seeking to summon on additional skinks to keep the enemy at bay, with Gotrek threatening to obliterate entire combat zones and dominate the middle.

Bob Van Emmerik - Legion of Night - 2nd Place

Deathrattle Skeletons. Credit: Skails

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Toolbox LoN

Thoughts

Bob has given up a significant amount of board control in skipping over a mass of zombies, but even still, 30 Skeletons and 20 Zombies is enough to be a headache for many armies, especially as said units can be recycled into half-size units (provided Bob can roll a 4+ in a timely fashion).

The tradeoff is in more hammers in the Grave Guard and Incarnate. Shaman of the Chilled Lands also means this is a Rupture Incarnate combo list, with Maelstrom and Gravetide to feed the Incarnate to get it up to level 3 quickly. Bob doesn't have the same spellcasting bonuses that over armies have, but Morbheg's gives him +2, the Incarnate itself a +1 and the Acolytes battalion means a steady supply of primal dice, meaning he can likely cast Rupture successfully turn one and create a very difficult problem for his opponent to solve.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position - Player Name - Faction:
• 3rd - Robert Reimers - Ironsunz (5-0): This absolute mad lad is running a total of 40 fucking Brutes! I don't even care what the rest of the list is, that's a mic drop moment! Hell yeah Robert!
• 4th - Kyle Liefting - Vyrkos Dynasty: Zombies with 5+ Ward, with Mannfred thrown in for good measure
• 5th - James Anderson - Jaws of Mork: A mixed Squig list that runs Hoppers, Herd, Bounderz and even a Loonboss on Mangler Squigs
• 6th - Alex Bathgate - Pretenders Host: Herohammer style, with only 22 Blissbarbs, 5 of each of the elite Seeker units, with the rest of the points mostly spent on Glutos and a suite of powerful utility heroes.
• 7th - Liam Burnett-Blue - Pretenders Host: More traditional style Slaanesh, with 44 Blissbarbs, 10 Slickblades, 5 Blissbarbs, the Epitome (of course) and Glutos to anchor the list
• 8th - Thomas Oliver - Drowned Men: Pusgoyle spam with Be'lakor and 20 Rotmire - a classic

Broken Realms and Minis for War 4

58-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Scotland, GB on September 09 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Geomantic Pulse

Nathan Watson - Reapers of Vengeance:

vs.

John Bayliss - Fangs of Sotek:

Thoughts

It's interesting that John has described this as 'narrative' as it looks like a pretty strong way to build Starborne Seraphon if you can't look yourself in the mirror after putting the Rupture Incarnate in your draft army list. Those points are re-invested in substantially more screens in the raptadons and some extra saurus to give the army more barriers between the enemy and the ever important Slann castle.

Going up against it is a Khorne list that can dominate the midboard with a fearsome 30 Blood Warrior block. Many armies will struggle to crack that deathstar open, with Suffocating Gravetide & Cosmic Crush being John's best options as they roll a bunch of dice to deal MW and 30 bois means 30 dice.

Perhaps the biggest wrinkle that tips the scales here (lol), is that Be'lakor has crashed the party to shut down a unit for a turn/two turns. I figured as going second in round two is so important on Geomantic Pulse, Nathan would go first, shut down Kroak using Be'lakor and aim to give the turn away. Nathan can take the first turn, shuffle up the board to control the center and use Be'lakor to insulate against a double turn. Without his Slann able to do much in both hero phases (assuming he fails the 3+), John will struggle to do too much and gain momentum to push into the mid game and take over the board.

After speaking to Nathan, he clarified that he instead Dark Mastered the Slann as it generates double summoning points and was a four cast wizard as John was going second round one. In the end, John won the priority and gave it back to Nathan to control where the pulse started, but that's a difficult position to come back from regardless.

Result

Reapers of Vengeance Victory - 28 - 24

William Cruickshanks - Legion of Night - 1st Place

Deadwalker Zombie. Credit: Skails

The List

Archetype

Zombies zombies zombies

Thoughts

I've once again opted for the top table matchup over the matchup of the eventual winner. I figured you would rather not look at William's game, which was a Legion of Night mirror with a total of 260 Deadwalker Zombies in it. You're welcome.

Not too much to say about this style of list as it's been a mainstay lately on CI. No Nagash gives the list room to run Mannfred and even more Zombies, plus support pieces like the Corpse Cart to make said Zombies deadlier. A combination of potent and easily scorable battle tactics, plus unparalleled horseshit in terms of efficient bodies to sit on circles and score primary points... It's good! Too good! That said, playing with this many zombies over five rounds takes stamina, quick thinking and a lot of patience, so massive congrats regardless to William for a fantastic performance.

Nathan Watson - Reapers of Vengeance - 2nd Place

Be'lakor, the Dark Master. Credit: SRM

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Making Khorne Mad

Thoughts

Be'lakor in Khorne feels wrong, you just got to figure the lord of skulls himself was just kind of sighing and going "fine, if that's what it takes to spill more blood" when Nathan put forth this idea to him. Anyway, in a metagame that is all about controlling the midboard with hordes and/or powerful elite units (hello SBGL and OBR respectively), 30 Blood Warriors are a very useful and powerful tool that can outlast and grind out attrition victories in most matchups that call for a good old fashioned brawl. In a metagame that's so combat heavy right now, it was a good call by Nathan.

The Gravetide to be cast by Be'lakor is a cute touch for how little it's cost is - high impact for cheap is what I love to see in list construction, well done Nathan!

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 all went 4-1 and were:

• Position - Player Name - Faction:
• 3rd - John Bayliss - Fangs of Sotek: See showdown
• 4th - Sean Murchie - Null Myriad: It's Katakros, Arkhan and the Dull Myriad
• 5th - Richard McQuarrie - Fangs of Sotek: Rupture Incarnate which lost only to Nathan in round two, as Be'lakor shutdown the Slann with Rupture and disrupted the combo
• 6th - Craig Worsley - Barak-Thryng: A spicy little brew, Craig skips the Khemist for a Runemaster to use the powerful Thryng prayer to give a 15 Thunderer block Mortal Wound output
• 7th - Alastair Maxwell - Mortis Praetorians: The standard cookie cutter Kata shell, but ran in MP with no Morghasts, instead bringing 15 total Deathriders and the Soulstealer Carrion for movement shenanigans and objective control support
• 8th - Seb Donley - Bloodlords: Bloodletter blobs with 3 Bloodmasters and a Blood Throne, grinding games out with combat activation shenanigans and model replenishment

Smite Club Open 2023 Age of Sigmar Major

35-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Mesa, AZ, US on September 09 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission -

Thomas Guan - Vyrkos Dynasty:

vs.

Matt Nguyen - Petrifex Elite:

Thoughts

Oh god why, again!? Thomas, you're grinding my brain into dust with these repeated top table showdowns with Zombies. It's two very prominent lists in the metagame that I've covered previously. Let's move on.

Result

Vyrkos Dynasty Victory - 88 - 16

Thomas Guan - Vyrkos Dynasty - 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Thoughts

You can find me discussing Thomas Guan's list here, here, here, or if you want a change up RagnarokAngel covers it here. That's just in the last six weeks! He's been grinding out the podium finishes with stupid amount of zombies for a lil bit now is my point. Hell, he even won the NOVA Invitational (plus a comically large cheque) and placed 9th overall at NOVA last week - the man cannot be stopped.

Jeremy Lefebvre - Godseekers Host - 2nd Place (4-1)

Credit: Liebot - https://instagram.com/liebot_pics

The List

Archetype

Gotta go(at) fast

Thoughts

Godseekers lets you shuffle d3 units d6" inches at the beginning of each battle round (technically the same unit could be picked multiple times in fact), which gives that Shardspeaker a bit of extra reach on that blizzard to catch people off guard or go for big plays if the Primal Dice bless Jeremy.

It's a fast list that doesn't care much at all about it's battleline - only 22 archers and the non-hero stuff is here mainly to support the herohammer that's going on here, and there's a lot of it. The Keeper has the ability to really control the combat phase with a potential 3d6" charge, as well as a 6" pile-in and flight. It might not seem like much but pile-ins that move 6" with the flight keyword means it can create a huge area of threat, as well as simply move past screens to get to the inner core of castles. Sigvald will likely receive the fight twice ability from the Keeper, supplemented by the Warshrine and it's prayer for a 3d6 charge himself (and likely a LOT of attacks on the charge, thanks to the way those abilities interact).

It's a powerful list that is doing something a little bit different than Be'lakor + Blissbarb spam, skipping even the Epitome in favour of the cheaper Enrapturess for spell disruption. I love it.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• Position - Player Name - Faction:
• 3rd - Colt Hegardt - Vyrkos Dynasty: The Guan special
• 4th - Matt Nguyen - Petrifex Elite: Cookie Cutter Kata
• 5th - Kyle Calip - Mortis Praetorians: Cookie Cutter Kata
• 6th - Matthew Pashby - Hosts of the Everchosen: This one's fun - 2*10 Chaos Warriors, 10 Chaos Knights with Slaanesh banner, 10 Chosen and 3 Varanguard in this grindy-ass plated fist thrown right in your face

Wrap Up

Have you got any tournaments coming up in your calendar? How are you feeling about your prep? I'm curious how people feel about this period of 2-3 weeks, where we know a battlescroll is coming and thus a lot of the most egregiously strong stuff will be nerfed... but that'll happen after list submission deadlines and thus won't help in said tournament.

For my part, I've got a tournament this weekend (Facehammer GT) and I'm looking forward to it, but I'll admit a lot of my excitement is tied up in my interest in the hobby as a whole. It helps that I'm running Big Waaagh, a powerful army in it's own right, that can at least hang with Soulblight and OBR at the top tables. The fat middle of the metagame looks really fun right now, so I suppose a lot of people's perceptions of the metagame will hinge on their own goals when attending a tournament - if you're happy with a 3-2 (possibly a 4-1) and have a decentish army then you probably don't care that much... but if you're aspiring to podium and you're running NOT one of the top tier armies?

I can imagine that sucks.