Welcome back to the blog, readers! I apologise again at my lack of blogs. Study continues, and there is a lot going on behind the scenes to get this year's tournaments together. It's been wonderful seeing the hobby grow over the past year, and the number of new events, new players and attendance is a very good indicator of things to come.
I will do a separate post about it at some point, but we also have National Rankings up and running, so do go check that out.
This weekend is the Equinox tournament, run by the Auckland City Guard.
The Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
tournament is being run by Dan S., and has a strong hobby focus. If you are reading this before the weekend, there are still spots available! Check out the Player's Pack for more information.
As is tradition, the enigmatic Jim has been invited to look at the army lists of those coming to Equinox, and his analysis is below.
See you all there! You can catch live event coverage on the Age of Sigmar New Zealand Facebook page.
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Ok gents sorry about the late list write up but here is my take on Equinox 2017.
Andy
Andrew is running the revised/nerfed (but not neutered) Tomb Kings. Tomb Kings have it all; great threat range, great damage and great defensive capabilities and Andy is bringing all of them. Look for him to use his small unit of Chariots to break away flak lines before rushing in with his large unit of Chariots and a Necrosphinx which will lay the hurt down. Do not underestimate the damage output of his Chariots - although they don’t have rend they can produce a ridiculous number of wounds when buffed by Settra, 2x Tomb Kings and a Liche Priest. This unit can easily wipe out two 30 man units of infantry in a single charge. The only caveat to this army is the lack of flak lines and the lack of defence against gunlines so I think Andrew may fall victim to the shifting meta. Still has a real chance if he avoids some unfavourable match ups.
Dan M.
Perfect example of the two wave approach to Age of Sigmar. Hits you first turn with a unit that you have to deal with that’s both very killy and has 30 wounds, which normally forces you to bring out the big guns to deal with them. This is when he hits your big guns with enough Daemonette goodness to rip apart your killy units exposed by the first wave. The two waves are backed up by two main buffs; the ability to pile in twice and +1 to hit from the generals ability. For players who are not used to units who can pile in twice this can easily catch you off guard – if your second line of troops are within 3-4 inches of the front of your flak units then he can wipe out your flak before piling in to your secondary line of troops. Good contender for first place but may have some bad match ups.
Daniel S.
Daniel's playing one of the harder lists at the tournament with the fairly standard Sylvaneth list which has been adjusted a bit for the current Meta. The move to a greater number of Kurnoth Hunters will make this list a nightmare for anyone relying on specific parts of their army to be able to function as a whole and with the ability to skirt them around the map anyone without 24+ inch threat range will find them very hard to deal with. Lucky (for us) it looks like Daniel is not playing due to numbers which is unfortunate for him – but does make way for a softer list to win the tournament.
Fraser
Good to see at least one alpha strike list still in the Meta. Fraser hits you fast and hard and any army lacking flak lines to put up in front will have a very hard time dealing with his army. Gordrakk is a beast who I have personally seen wipe out 2k points by himself. If he’s not buffing himself and charging turn one then he’s buffing the entire battalion that encompasses the rest of the army and still charging you turn one. If Gordrakk goes down early however this becomes an uphill battle fast for Fraser and with the amount of gun lines being brought there is bound to be one that will get lucky and down him early.
Geoff
Fear the Moonclan! Geoff is bringing up the model count coming into Equinox. Not the most killy army but has enough artillery to snipe important list components before taking objectives and holding up the rest. Moonclan Grot Shamans are excellent spell casters with their +2 to cast when eating mushrooms and with an excellent spell to cast these are a simple choice at 60 points a piece – Geoff really brings this home by bringing three of them to ensure those rolls of 1 when eating mushrooms don’t affect those critical Mystic Shields or Curse of the Bad Moons going off.
James McG.
I really like James McG's list, Dragon Lords + Dragon Blades battalion is an excellent battalion and when combined with the Forest Dragon's ability to have units that its in contact with hit last this could really hurt lists such as the stone horn alpha strikes. Way Watchers are good battle line and Sisters of the Thorn and Executioners are both good units in their own right, and James takes the cost effective Mistweaver Saih as the Mystic Shield spellcaster to combo with the Sisters. Love the toolkit, love the combination of range, defence, offence and manoeuvrability. James is lacking a bit of flak to throw in front of units and hopefully learns to let go of Dragon Blades that may be required to be thrown under the bus against certain lists (cavalry can take up a lot of room and with the high movement make for excellent blockers when required). Look forward to a good showing by this list.
James O.
James’s list isn't looking too bad but unfortunately has fallen prey to the player's pack requirements of not being able to manipulate the initiative roll. This is a major setback to the list and may be enough to cost him a few games. I look forward to seeing more of the stunties in mixed order lists but the jury is still out to how much effect the change in points will have in a pure Fyreslayer list.
James P.
My list runs enough artillery to deal with issues then combines as many combat buffs as possible. Long Beards enable me to use multiple command abilities which means I can give units +1 attacks against a unit, up to -2 rend from Runepriests, +1 to wound from warden and +1 to hit and wound from Ungrim. This makes for units of Slayers that will definitely hurt with 4 attacks each hitting on 2s wounding on 2s with -2 rend. If slayers go down early then other units can be buffed but to not as great effect. Artillery definitely needs to carry their weight for me to do well and I require them to pump out the main portion of wounds that I need to deal.
Jared
The new Stormcast Eternals! I really don’t know how this list is looking tbh because I have not perused the book yet. The new rules around mounts may make several units that we see in this list more viable but we will soon see how much of a difference coming down 9 inches away makes to the SCE units rather than being able to drop them into combat.
Jim McP.
Jim has a nice amount of flak to veil his hard hitting larger units behind, however James may be the victim of a changing Meta. Lots of gun line based armies at the tournament will make for hard opponents for James. James is however becoming quite the NZ tournament veteran and knows how to play objectives – we will have to wait and see if this is enough to overcome the meta shift.
Julien
The Chaos Undivided lists got a major boost with the introduction of Sky Fires. Julien will most likely utilise the generals ability to give a unit +1 to hit to combine with the shaman being nearby to make them generate D3 mortal wounds on a hit roll of 4+ and with a range of 24 inches with a 14 inch move this makes the unit incredibly hard to deal while they destroy your backline. On top of this, the unit is actually very good in close combat with re rolls to hit and wound and their demonic mount able to pump out decent amounts of rend 1 wounds. To back this up Julien has brought Skarbrand with Sayl to really threaten your lines, he will wait till he is angry then fly him at you with Sayl's magic to wreak havoc. The list has a few weird elements in it with the Gutter Runners etc but I hear Julien is an experienced 40k player and with a few adjustments to this list will start to easily make it up the rankings in the NZ AOS space. The list is still on par with anything at this tournament however with no truly hard lists being shown yet in NZ so I expect him to do well with a real chance of taking it out.
Marlin
Marlin's list is a bit more objective focused with larger units of Dryads to issue forward and block and contest his opponents. Marlin is also bringing Drycha, which is a nice addition to his army, with the relative amount of Dryads that Marlin is taking – Dryhca can sit behind the firing off her ranged attacks to dish out a considerable amount of wounds to larger infantry based units.
Ron
Ron's bringing out the Ironjawz again to trample over his foes. Looking forward to seeing the Maw Crusha back in action – Ron will be relying on this and 2 units of Brutes to bring down the hurt on his opponents. The Balewind Vortex is an interesting addition and will be interesting to see how it works out for him (long range Foot of Gork could really get lucky and win him a few games) so will be interesting to see how this list competes.
Tim
Tim is playing Nagash how he should be played – as the Lord of Summoning. Tim's list only contains Nagash and three units of skeletons, with the rest of his points is reserved for summoning. Tim has a large assortment of different units that he can summon and really knows how to play objectives – think of it like a SCE army but he gets to change whats coming down. He can and will summon the 900 remaining points in one turn with ease, placing them in strategic locations around the battlefield. He has up to +4 to cast to summon and can cast 7 spells per turn – if he fails a casting spell he will just attempt to summon a different unit instead. Really fun list to play and play against looking forward to seeing it on the battlefield.
Tristan
Last but not least the other dispossessed player Tristan. Tristan’s list is very similar to mine and who would of thought the only double ups in special characters brought to the tournament would be Belegar and Ungrim! Tristan's army plays very similar to mine but has the advantage of combining all of his units into 2 battalions. Unfortunately for me however I have to face Tristan in the first round and this small advantage of being able to decide who goes first might be enough to tip the scales in his favour.
