NICON 2017 - Grand Alliance: Death List Overview

With one week to go until the event, here is part two of the NICON List Saga!

In Part One I looked at the Grand Alliance: Order army lists, and what to expect from the tournament metagame.

Before kicking into the Death lists, I wanted to briefly mention the time limits at NICON, and give a shoutout to our awesome sponsors.

Prizes at NICON

We are very lucky to have two awesome sponsors this year - Mighty Ape and Gaming DNA. Please go check out their stuff.

There will be no double-ups with the plaque awards.

Here are the awards:

• First Place Overall
• "Realm God" Plaque
• $80 vouchers
  
• Second Place Overall
• $40 vouchers

• Third Place Overall
• $20 voucher
  
• Favourite Army Award
• "Grand Panoplist" Plaque
• $40 voucher
  
• Favourite Opponent Award
• "Arch Manipulator" Plaque
• $40 voucher
  
• Top Scoring Order Player
• "Prime" Plaque
  
• Top Scoring Destruction Player
• "Megaboss" Plaque
  
• Top Scoring Death Player
• "Mortarch" Plaque
  
• Top Scoring Chaos Player
• "Exalted" Plaque
  
• Top Scoring Club or Gaming Group
• Terrain Kit (TBD)
  
• Spot Prizes*
• 1x Kharadron Overlords Grundstok Gunhauler
• 1x Kharadron Overlords Arkanuat Admiral
• 1x Stormcast Eternals Excelsior Upgrades
• 1x Stormcast Eternals Prosecutors (3 figure boxing)
• 1x Stormcast Eternals Liberators (5 figure boxing)
• 1x Quest for Ghal Maraz (book)
• 1x Treemen Ancient
• White Dwarf issues

*Each player will get one entry into the spot prize draws. Additional entries will be given out for sharing 'cool stories' from your battles! In addition, each player will receive a Mighty Ape discount voucher.

What a haul!

Timekeeping at a Tournament

When we play Warhammer socially, often the only time limit is just how long we have to get the game in alongside our other commitments. We can let games go on for hours, or even just call it after one or two turns for absolutely massive games. 

At tournaments, the necessity of cramming in enough games to produce a fair result, and things like venue times, means that we have to impose time limits on  each game. For the Warhost sized games at NICON (2,500 points), I have allowed 3 hours per game, with a short break in between. This is slightly longer than Battlehost events (2,000 points at 2.5 hours), and depending on the type of army each player has, it may be a challenge to complete each game within the allowed time.

If your game goes to time, you are asked to finish the turn your're on, or if that will take more than 5 minutes, then "dice down" will be called. Depending on where you are at in your game, an early finish can greatly affect the victory conditions and the outcome.

So my comment about this is to please try to do all you can to finish as many turns as possible. It is part of respecting your opponent. Some players like to take their time to consider their moves. Which is absolutely fine. However, with the time constraints of tournament play, the ability to quickly make decisive decisions is one of the measures of success.

A while ago I did a blog on Tips and Tricks for Tournament Players. The take-away is that by doing some preparation in the lead up to the event, you can save yourself game time on the day. 

Now, onto the Death lists! There are only three Death armies coming to NICON so this will be short and sweet.

Grand Alliance: Death

Andrew L - Tomb Kings

• List Download

The General

Settra the Imperishable - THE Tomb King.  His command ability is pretty epic: so long as Andy holds out his hand and utters 'War' in a commanding tone, he can add 1 to all hit rolls for Death units within 18" of him in the combat phase, and add 1 to wound rolls if they are also Deathrattle. This is a huge force multiplier, and makes Settra a priority target. But that's not all he does. All Mummy heroes within 18" can also use their command abilities. He has a prayer that allows a Deathrattle unit to fly and double their movement distance. He has an extra wound ignore ability on a 5+. If he charges his damage 3 weapon gets an extra two attacks. And if he is slain, the unit that killed him takes D6 mortal wounds. The downside is, Andrew can't kneel during the game or he loses. Settra does not kneel!

The Battalions

• N/A

The Army

Andy has two other Tomb Kings - one on foot and one on a Royal Warsphinx. This means extra command abilities  - one Skeleton unit can add 1 to hit, run and charge rolls. Another adds yet another +1 to wound rolls for Mummy and Deathrattle units. The Necrotect can add 3" to a units Movement, and allow his catapults to shoot twice. So, lets look at who these buffs can go on. Mostly, it's likely to be the chariots; +2 to hit, +2 to wound (re-rolling 1s), a 26" movement range, which can fly, and then add 1 to charge rolls and re-roll failed charge rolls. This might sound like Andy really wants to charge you with his chariots, and there is a reason for that. They double all their attacks when they charge. They have 5 wounds each, so assuming you can kill some of them, they also return one model per turn back to the unit thanks to the Icon Bearers. And then in the next turn a second chariot unit hits you. Glorious! 

Andy has his bases covered with fast moving shock troops (with good buffs), and his catapults, which reduce Bravery by 2 for battleshock tests. This will be devastating on some armies. A Necrosphynx and Royal Warsphinx to help deal with big gribblies, and which are both hard to kill due to halving all incoming wounds. Lastly, Prince Apophas. I am so delighted to see this guy in a tournament list that I'm not even going to cover him, just so that you will either go and look him up and learn about this awesome character, or you will let Andy surprise you with him on the day!

Brett LF - Nagash Deathmages

• List Download

The General

Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead - The Big Guy. The internet will tell you he is not viable at tournaments. I  disagree, even at Battlehost sized games. Perhaps I will to a blog about that later. Until then, let's look at what he does. His command ability allows all his units on the table to re-roll 1s for hit and save rolls, and everything is immune to battleshock. I've found the re-rolling ones is not to be underestimated, especially when his own armour save is 2+ with Mystic Shield. It makes Morghast very reliable. Nagash also does a lot of summoning. Another thing the internet will tell you sucks in Matched Play. Again, I beg to differ. I don't know what Brett is summoning with his 320 points but Nagash's ability to double what he can bring out to the table means that he can get units out very quickly, such as a full unit of 20 Grave Guard or 40 Skeleton Warriors to swamp an objective. he can summon heroes if needed. We do know, however, that he cannot summon a Mourngul, which is 400 points. remember that he can react to his opponents deployment and summon some hard hitting units where needed. Seems like a small thing but it's not.

That besides, you should probably just read his warscroll as there is a lot there. Some nasty spells. And he can use the spells for all other Death wizards on the table, friend or foe.

The Battalions

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The Army

Brett's battleline consists of zombies. If units of 10 looks unflattering, just consider that Brett can combine them into a unit of 40 in turn 1. Then, with the Necromancer and Corpse Cart buffs, they have +4 to hit rolls, re-rolling 1s. They have +3 to wound rolls, pile in and attack twice in the combat phase, are immune to battleshock, and can gain D6 models back each turn (more sometimes). The Corpse Cart reduces enemy casting rolls, while the Mortis Engines do the same and give a bonus to his own side's casting. Casters are in for a bad time against Nagash. The Mortis Engines also release their once-per-game ability that heals friendly units D3 wounds each within range and damages enemies by D3 within range. Pop both at once could be nasty. Morghast give Nagash yet another +1 to cast when he summons. So now he is at +5, more if he finds Arcane terrain. Only advice I have is watch out for the Morghast, and whatever he summons. Nagash can be hard to kill, and zombies will be hard to move. 

Tim L - Deathlords

• List Download

The General

Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead - As per Brett's army. Nagash also gets to use Arkhan's spell, and Arkhan gets to use Nagash's spells. I have 300 points of summoning, so not enough for a Mourngul, but enough to get tricky with objectives and/or chaff or another hammer unit, depending on the opponent. Summoning 10 Skeleton Warriors is nice, being able to stop some Stronehorn or other such nastiness from charging Nagash directly. Again, flexibility is the key.

The Battalions

• N/A

The Army

Four units of Morghast, which become Battleline units as my army is Deathlords allegiance. I like the concept more than the army's capabilities, but I came second with this list at Warhost last year in Wellington, so it has its surprises. I also had a lot of luck! Keys to the list are judicious summoning (as mentioned), Nagash kicking some ass and not dying, and Arkhan's Curse of Years triggering full DEATHMODE, which statistically has about a 15% chance of happening each time it is cast. The downside is that Morghasts in units of two are not ideal, and if I can't get first turn against an alpha list, I do not have the benefit of Nagash's command ability or summoned chaff. 

Also, the metagame has moved on from last year, and some of these new armies will wreak me!

I am not playing to compete this year, but I always love fielding this army for pure Cool Factor.



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More to come this week with the Destruction and Chaos List Overviews!

Wellington Warhost 2016 Results

It was a fantastic weekend of wargaming in Aro Valley, Wellington. Fourteen players, 2,500 point armies, and four games each made for an impressive spectacle.

The final results were as follows:

1st Place: James Page (Tomb Kings)

2nd Place: Tim Lind (Deathlords)

3rd Place: Matthew Britton (Beastclaw Raiders)

Best Painted Army: Tim Lind

Best Opponent: Aiden Nicol

Congratulations to the above! Standout armies also included Shaun T's Khorne, who were unbeaten until the last round against TK for first place, Shaun B's Stormcast Retributor bomb, and Ron G's Ironjawz, who all performed very well.

Deathlords strike a pose

I personally had a much better result than anticipated, in no small part due to some epic luck in my last two games. The first was against Ron's Ironjawz, where Curse of Years triggered full death mode against 20 'Ard Boys and then again on the Maw Crusha, allowing me to secure the win. The second was against Shaun's Retributor list, where the teleporting unit of 15 Retributors failed to kill Nagash, and then me winning the double turn to summon some troops and capture all four objectives at the top of turn 3 (Blood and Glory Scenario).

As for my top pics - Shaun and Hayden were my two choices that didn't make it into the top 5. Had I not won my last two games it may have been pretty much spot on. Matt's army proved the stronger of the two Beastclaw Lists, the Magma Dragon proving a bit too much for some of his opponents to deal with.

I filmed most of my games on my phone, so will edit that up and produce a YouTube video sometime soon. The last two were especially exciting. In the meantime, check out some of the pictures from the weekend below.

MASSIVE THANKS to the generous sponsors who provided prizes. Without you the weekend would not have been so special. Thank you for helping to grow this wonderful game.

• Games Workshop Wellington
• Mighty Ape
• Nathan Smith
• James McPherson
• James Page
• Ron Golds

Thanks also to the ringer players. We had a bit of uncertainty in the build up to the event due to various health concerns, and had a cadre of gamers on standby to fill in. I hope you enjoyed the games you played and look forward to seeing you again!

• Fraser Baker
• Austin Ronald
• Thomas Lissington

Full Results

Picture from the multiplayer game from Saturday night - 8 players over two tables with a Realmgate connecting them!

Wellington Warhost 2016 - List Overview

New Zealand's first 2,500 point tournament is coming up on November 12th and 13th. With 14 players, it is also going to be the best attended so far in our small but growing community of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar players.

The army lists were released today, so I wanted to have a look at each and give my thoughts, as well as my pick for the top five.

The player's pack can be found here, and you can follow all our event chatter on the Age of Sigmar New Zealand community or tournament groups.

Additionally, we are hoping to provide a live stream of the top tables on Twitch, so follow my Twitter or Facebook feed if you are interested.

Without further ado, let's look at the first list.

Ron's Ironjawz

Ron won the GuardCon 2016 tournament for the 2,000 point event this year, and can play his list very well. Free to bulk up to 2.5k, Ron has added more Brutes and more Pigs, essentially scaling up his army based on his existing formula. He will be using the extra speed afforded to Destruction armies to neutralise key threats early, and will likely look to the 'Ardboyz as fodder against the Beastclaw pain train.

James P's Tomb Kings

James is so far unbeaten in the Age of Sigmar, and that includes tournament wins at the NICON, Call to Arms and Skull Keep events this year. His list has remained consistent over those events in taking six Necropolis Knights, buffed by Settra Himself, and a Liche Priest for extra attacks. In this bigger game format, he has added a Tomb King, Necrotect and Necromancer to buff the unit beyond insanity. And it gets worse. The Tomb Guard are just as good as the Necro Knights. He is also running Arkhan, who can benefit from any buffs that effect Skeletons. The rest are 'just' chaff, but they perform better than throwaway units from most other armies. I think you'd have to play your guts out and get a bit of luck to beat it, and we can only hope that Jim becomes bored with TK eventually...

David's Stormcast Eternals and Extremis Chamber

I like this list. Not least because I am also building one around the Warrior Brotherhood battallion and the Knight-Azyros' ability to drop them closer to the enemy. Interestingly, David is taking the new Lord Veritant, obviously anticipating a bit of magic to nullify. Concussors and Fulminators provide a very good hammer blow to this force. One thing I thought that could improve it would be to have the Azyros as part of the battallion, as there is a risk David could lose the model before he gets to use its synergy for the inevitable alpha strike. He is entitled for a few more Starsoul Maces too, but these are hard to obtain for those who picked up the starter set. Love the list concept, looking forward to seeing how it goes for when my own Storm Chamber takes the field!

Bo's Aelven Host

Bo's bringing back the shooting! Certainly there's a lot of it here. As we discovered at Call to Arms, it is not infallible, despite the core rules allowing shooting into and out of combat. With Destruction rampaging through the metagame with their Turn One charges, Bo has several unfavourable matchups to plan around. It's great to see Tyrion on the table, and I think opponents may get caught short with the Ellyrian Reavers and their movement rules. Overall, solid MSU pew-pew that will provide a counterpoint to the 'deathstars' and low model count armies.

Shaun B's Stormcast Eternals and Free Guild

Shaun has the (dubious) honour of fielding the first Retributor Bomb ever witnessed on NZ soil. This is going to catch opponents off-guard. The combo involves the Knight-Vexillor using the Pennant of the Stormbringer to teleport a unit of 15(!) Retributors into a unit of his choice, possibly also buffed up by the mages. The small mercy is that he is taking two-less Starsoul Maces than he is entitled to, although how much of a difference that will make is debatable. He has some chaff to help compete against Alpha Strike lists, and some back-line damage from the Hurricanum. A very good list being wielded by a wily player.

Hayden's Beastclaw Raiders

Hayden is famous in the AOS community for his incredibly quick painting. He painted two full armies in the time it takes me to do a single warscroll. The worst part? The army looks great. The Jorlbad Battalion allows those units to run and charge, which is amazing when combo'd with the Destruction ability that allows units to move a bit in the Hero phase. Only having two heroes will mean he has to play mindfully on certain scenarios, but the Mournfang Cavalry will be able to cover any gaps in his battleline. Beastclaw Raiders are known for one thing - Turn One charging with big monsters. There will be those who are ready for it, and those who are not.

Matthew's Destruction Warhost

The main goal of Matt's army is similar to the other Beastclaw list. Get the monsters into the face of his opponent. I played against Matt at Call to Arms, and he came the closest out of everyone of being able to kill Nagash. Matt has brought along a bit more diversity into his list this time. Grots, for objectives and chaff-related tasks, is a good move, allowing him to add a few more options to his strategy. I am interested to see the Magma Dragon in action! The shooting attack in particular almost guarantees that a Hero will die each turn. What a beast! It turns out Matt has grudged me for round one...

Aiden's Clan Pestilens

I have no idea what we are up against here. I haven't read or have access to the Warscroll Battalions, which scares me - something I will get on to between now and the event. The Virulent Procession is made of of two Congregations of Filth. And a Foulrain Convocation to lay down some damage from a distance. I'll bet there are a heap of synergies there, so I'm going to guess that killing heroes is the way to go about taking it down. There are a decent amount of bodies on the table, so if he's careful he can insulate his catapults against the Alpha strike lists while taking out key targets. I'm a fan of lists that take loads of synergies, so looking forward to this one.

James M's Clan Pestilens

Another Pestilens army! It's rare enough to see one, so cool to have two. James played at the now famous Warlords event at Warhammer World, and has thrown himself into the NZ AOS scene. He also very generously brought us back a few exclusive goodies from WHW to use as prizes, so I hope everyone buys him a drink next weekend!

His army looks amazing, and while he has seen somewhat tempered competitive success, the swarm army is always wielded skillfully. The army is similar to Aiden's, but he is making use of different Warscroll battalions. Again, I don't have access to these to know what the key differences are, but Skrolk is present to provide hit roll debuffs, which are key to some enemy strategies.

Shaun T's Khornate Warhost

Of all the lists, this one is my favourite. A core of Khorne daemons, supported by Wrathmongers and Be'lakor! The Flamers of Tzeentch are obviously lost and have fallen in with the wrong crowd. The big trick with this list is the Warscroll Battalion granting up to three units an extra attack in the Hero Phase. And so many models... This will make it hard to compete against when playing for scenarios. Because do you really want to get close to Khorne models? Wrathmongers will be Shaun's hard counter to the crazy monsters out there that his Bloodthirsters cannot deal with by themselves. Be'lakor's Dark Master ability will win games. I'm calling it now.

Nicholas's Darkling Coven

One imagines that the poor Free Guild and Duardin present in this list are in fact enslaved to the will of the Sorceress, so spare a thought for them as they rain fiery death upon you. Quite an infantry-heavy list, Nick has supplemented the choppiness with some Demigyph Cavalry and some Ironweld artillery. It's solid, and it looks like a ton of fun. The Thrall Warhost battalion will give a huge movement and combat bonus, allowing a free charge and round of attack in the Hero phase. My guess is this will focus around the Executioners. A scary proposition for any unit he will come against.

Tim's Deathlords

So this is my list. It seems to be generating a disproportionate level of anxiety, but I think it's far from unbeatable. Since the General's Handbook came out I have wanted to field Morghast as Battleline, and I am almost there with the painting side. This means I get to summon up to 300 points of reinforcements. Had I left Arkhan out, I would be looking at Mourngul and more Grave Guard, but Curse of Years is such a fun spell that I have a hard time leaving him behind. Noone will believe I took this army for fluff reasons (that is my story though, and I am sticking to it), so let's talk about what it does. I have to rely on these few models to do the damage up front, which means Nagash and Arkhan need to make their points back on the front lines. They can do this admirably, and some lists may not have an answer to them. But some lists are making me quite anxious indeed. Morghast effectiveness is improved a lot by Nagash's command ability, so this will need to be enough to compete with those top lists. The flexibility afforded to me by summoning should allow me to compete for objectives or utilise chaff as required.

Ken's Bonesplitterz

This one is all about the synergies. The various buffs and special rules will allow the Arrowboys to make up to 120 shots per turn, which is too much for most things to withstand. Those armies unable to take down his heroes early are going to suffer big time. The other stunning stat from this army is the sheer number of wounds - 251! With objective play this will be very forgiving for Kenny, and is going to be a tall order for his opponents, where one or two smashy units might just not be enough to get through it all.

Top Five Picks

1. James - Tomb Kings - No brainer (ba dum PISH).
   
2. Shaun  - Stormcast - Retributor bomb will be key to victory.
   
3. Ron - Ironjawz - Placing a good deal of value on Ron's generalship.
   
4. Hayden - Beastclaw Raiders - Too fast, too strong. Should do well.
   
5. Tim - Deathlords - Going to back myself, as I've seen Nagash turn games around. 

The last few are very match-up dependent. I could see Kenny's Bonesplitters and  Matt's Beastclaw list doing really well. As always with AOS, you cannot fully discount any army, so I am sure I will be proved wrong!

So, do you agree/disagree? Who are your picks?

Massive thanks to our event sponsor Mighty Ape - do check out their excellent hobby section!