AliKing

I kinda like weird out there lists and was thinking that the fact that the berserkers don't count towards the max heroes has an opportunity he. So has anyone tried running something like the following yet? Runemaster Runesmiter x8 Grimwrath berserkers x5 Auric hearth guard x5 Auric hearth guard x5 Auric hearth guard x5 Hearth guard beserkers x5 Hearth guard beserkers x10 Vulkite beserkers Runic Fryewall Forge Bretheren would likely go for the gryfrd lodge for lots of artefact for trick and the command ability, although Vorstrag would be tempting for pure speed. Will need to look at what artefacts when I have them to hand.

Has anyone tried a list with all 3 waracoll battalions (totals 1980 I think)? If so any good? And what artifacts and lodge would you go for?

Yeah gonna proxy them for the first couple of games before I take any plunge, but thinking I may be able to make the slings quite easily with just strip of green stuff folded other instead of the shield for a clanrat. If the opponent deploys way back I guess you would just give them 1st turn to be honest, if you cant get to them the really should not be able to get to you. have been trying to work out the stats and likely hood of getting a first turn charge off though. Average space apart is usually 18-24", sneaky infiltrators closes the gap on average to 11-17", normal move drops that to 4-10", Cogs 2-8". Average charge would be 9" with cogs. So should be able to make it on average... with many, many variables obviously 😛 Is there anything we have access to that can enable you to run and charge with the nightrunners? And yeah promise if I get it on the tabletop soon I will report back with the tales of victory (or how my minions undermined my fullproof plan)

yeah I guess it would, hadn't thought about in my head that way. I know 2 drops skaven! I have never played an army with less than 12 before. Never got to choose who get first turn, never used a battalion either, its would be all new and exciting for me Just not sure I want to invest in another 100 monkey rat night runners or spend time finding a way to convert them being the main problem with the list at the moment.

Been thinking about doing an eshin army and came up with one I think I like the look of: Really liking the options with all the tricks that can be played now with Eshin. All the unit that can be are in the battalion, leaving me with 2 drops. Not sure which death master will be part of the yet.

Don't forget you can get the trait to re-roll wounds for pestilence shooting as well

So following on from my heat 1 summary report, I have begun thinking about what I would do and change about my army. One of the things I felt I really lack was stuff to do at range turn 1/2, with most of our spells limited to only 13" and the ralting guns also only 12" range. When my opponents made me go first (I had 12 drops, I never get to choose 😛 ) I found that I often did not have much to do other than position myself round the board. This was an issue I didn't have before our battle tome as I had PWM instead of the ratling guns who could provide me with long range damage effective against most unit, also don't need line of sight (handy vs trees and hiding support heroes). Obviously with the loss of the mortar from the rules I cant put them back in, however the Plague claw catapult is a more buffed up, albeit more expensive, version of the mortar now. So will be giving them a go in the list, almost had them in my GT list in the first place but decided to try the ralting guns instead. On the subject of ratling guns, they were very effective in many of my game. I did find though getting them in position and range to shoot was harder than I would of liked. Main issue being the would shoot and wipe out a target. then have to spend a whole turn getting in range of another target to be effective. Also often 3 was actually overkill but does give you back up for when 1 blows up. The plague monks and the clanrats performed the roles as you may expect. Have 4 40 man block made trying up and slowing down units very easy. The 20 man units was nice to have around and hold objectives with/teleport through the gnawhole. Not sure if I need it though. The Grey seer was great at stopping the guys running away with robes, but magic wise was often to short range to do anything effective (didn't cast plague once). I would probably swap plague out for skitterleap and was a major mistake not having it in my list imo. The Bell did better than I thought it would, the battle shock combined with the seer meant that my army pretty much never took a battle shock test in the whole weekend. the effect of the bell itself were variable. -1 to hit being the most useful and +1 cast/unbind. Most of the other results were a bit meaningless in the end though. Gutter runners were either pointless or incredibly useful. The ability to clear gnaw holes of chaff unit proved to be their most useful role and just to put pressure on opponents objective was useful. But then some games they didn't have much to do and just die and run too easy. Lastly the vermin lord warbringer, was somewhat underwhelming, his combat prowess isn't what it used to be which is a bummer. the command trait is still handy but requires him to be well positioned and getting it on multiple units can be difficult unless he is functioning as a solely support character in your line. Death frenzy is good but difficult to cast without buffs. I would probably prefer the Deciever for a combat role in the future and skitterleap. Although warpseer would be good as it is more survivable if not it loses a bit of combat punch but not much. will post a revised list up later

So I have returned back through the gnaw hole after my own trip to Heat 1 with the list I posted up a few days ago, for those of you who missed it here is it again: Warlock engineer, overseer of destruction Grey Seer, Snoutgrovel robes, Plague Screaming Bell, Howling warpgale Vermin lord warbringer X3 X40 clanrats x20 clanrats x40 plague monks, twin blades x3 rattling guns x10 gutter runners Gonna do a quick summary of my games and then a reflection on my list and what I may change going forward. Game one I was playing Russ Veal with a scream bomb FEC blisterkin army at shifting objectives. Turns out playing a Masters player at a game I hadn't played much since September is not a great preparation for game 1. I deployed most of my army reasnobly far back so as not to get wiped off the board first turn. This meant he took the objectives early but I hadn't taken any harm before my turn. I moved up and did some serious damage with the ratling guns but crucially forgot about running with my units until I it was too late (really not played AoS for a while). I then failed charges with my plague monks and warbringer meaning I could finish of some of the units like I had planned. I managed to get the double turn but due to me forgetting to run in the prior turn couldn't get on the objectives/charge with most of my units. In his go he then screamed about 100 rats of the table in 1 go and after losing the next turn roll of I couldn't reover from their. In summary if I had of played this game at the end of the event it may have gone a lot better for me but learned how brutal the rattlings guns can be. game 2 played a really nice guy called Matthew with a great looking legion of Nagash army with Nefarrata, 2 big scaries of zombie dragons, 40 skellies, x2 units of 5 wolves and a necromancer. We were playing places of arcane power, he took first turn an immediately moved his 2 dragons and necromancer on to the objectives. I take 2 off him by the end of turn 2 with the verminlord and ratling guns wiping out one of the zombie dragon and the screaming bell and clanrats taking the other off the necromancer. meanwhile some plague monks and gutter runner where trying to kill the other zombie dragon who had the 3+ ignore modifiers save. End of turn 3 saw me take out the other zombie dragon once a clanrat unit joined the fray and take that objective, however my screaming bell that was on full wounds at the time got wounded by nefferatta and then rolled a 6 and dies instantly. We ran out of time a turn later with it unlikely anyone was going to shift either off the objectives. I ended uo losing 11-10 although would have most likely won it if we had 1 more turn. Great game, cool army. Got one of my most sporting and best army votes. Game 3 was against josh with trees, with Ariel, drycha, the named treeman, treeman ancient and some dryads and funkier looking dryads. We were playing the startstrike (?). First turn his drycha popped up behind me and killed 36 plague monks with he shooting attack which was horrific, but the ratling guns turned around a blew her off the board in return. I positioned stuff round the board with my superior numbers and quantity of units. Irritatingly all the objective landed in the middle where his units where. The rest of the game was spent trying to keep his army contained while getting enough number on the objectives to deny him points and win me points. Was a close game but saw through with the win in the end. Josh got my other best army and most sporting vote. Later learned him and Matt from my other game had actually came down together. Day 2 opened with a game against storm casts in the better part of valour. His list had the big guy on dragon, a tooty horn guy, another hero or 2 who did some buffs, 20 sequitors, 10evocators, gryph hound. Felt good about the game going into it as I had a good numbers advantage, I managed however to miss the part about burning objectives and so what I though would be a easy turn 2 where I just moved and collected his objectives turned into a game of just defending 2 of my objectives (he managed to burn 1 of mine, not realise that he could). I managed to hold out then inflict massive damage on his sequitors and evocators (don't see all the fuss about these guys with skaven). At the end of the game ended up seeing out the win in relative comfort. Last game was also against trees with a similar list to last time, can remember the scenario but it was 4 objectives, 2 in the middle worth 2, home one worth 1 and enemy one worth 4. I had learnt my lesson from last game and managed to stop ariel and drycha doing much damage. In the end my superior numbers got me through in relative ease despite losing all of the roll offs. Overall once I remembered how to play this game again and got used to the army thought I worked quite well. I felt like I am missing some long range fire power that I used to get from the mortars so will probably jig it around to get a catapult or 2 in their. Ratling guns were more impressive than I thought they would be as well. The warbringer was somewhat underwhelming, may have used him badly but never really got much benefit out of him beyond his stats as a vermin lord. So may just put the warpseer in next just for the survivability. Although didn't really need command points much throughout the whole event. Will probably go into more detail and a revised list later, but in the end finished 37th and qualified for the final if I want to go so have many more month to practice and refine.

So played my first game since the new book against beasts of chaos at shifting objectives (I think that's what it's called) Got a resounding win by the end of turn 3. Nearly everything in the list performed. Darling guns with the buffs are ace. Screaming bell was more useful than I thought it would be. Clanrats do what clanrats do best still. Only things was plague monks never made it to combat so never got to try them out 😂 . The little buff to gutter runner throwing stars makes a nice difference for more reliable damage at range as well. Short range of spells can be a pain as well sometimes but beyond turn 1 think it's fine. Overall army works really well, I think I need some practice using gnawholes but should come with more games easy enough.

not knowing if I am actually Thanquol or not 😜

Under my supreme leadership

so many funny little options you could do, for me its pretty much x40 clanrats and then 300pts of whatever hero/gimmick you like. Could even go for a plague priest and a hellpit or screech vermin king and summon more rats haha. I personally though would probably just go for more clanrats and a warlord (possible broodhorror mounted and 20 clanrats).

its either a screen unit to protect against alpha strike style armies without having to sacrifice a whole unit of 40, or just to go after/hold objectives really. As a skaven I feel kinda insecure without at least 200 rats hanging around 😜

the only reason I haven't is because I like having 13 units 😛 but I completely agree with you on it probably being better

So got an event this weekend and finally decided upon my list (may have something to do with the amount of units ). Not sure on the spells though yet thinking probably 2 out of Skitterleap, Plague and warpgale. Warbringer Grey seer, snoutgrovel robes Screaming bell Warlock engineer, x40 clanrats x40 clanrats x40 clanrats x20 clanrats x10 gutter runners x40 plague monks ratling gun ratling gun ratling gun on a side note all the realm rules with be used at the weekend as well so will have those spells and stuff availble

doesn't really matter if they overlap, as long as everyone is covered. Also means you can lose one without as much impact.

Been theory hammering some lists out one I came up with is along the lines of: Thanquol Warbringer Warpseer x3x40 clanrats x2x40 Plague monks Pretty simple, plaguemonks I think are gonna be incredibly good this addition, were already good in my opinion now get the +1's to hit and wound, plus the get a 6+ save now which is nice. All for the same points Warpseer is ace for his command ability and with his command point on a 3+, masterclan spending command points for free on a 5+ and thanquols command ability, should mean have CP's to spare. The 3 heroes can add a bit of punch and a lot of good magic as well. Gnawholes can be handy but not thinking to much about them yet really as I see them more situational than anything. Traits and artefacts not sure what to go on yet without seeing the book in person for sure, but liked the sound of the immunity to battleshock wholly within 18" one I heard. Not sure how much I would need it the warpseer but mean the whole army should be immune. If anyone has a list of the traits/artefacts would be good although may have to wait til the book comes out. An alternative I have come up with includes some plague claw catapults as I was a big fan of the mortars before they have gone on a prolonged leave of absence (I used 4 in my old list). Issue I a finding is the 160pts is a pain to fit in with everything else I want. Screaming Bell x2 plague furnace x2 PCC x2 x40 plague monks x3 x40 clanrats Less magic but do have prayers and some ranged threat. Trait and artefact wise not really sure.

its an interesting list for me, I cant say there is anything much wrong with it on the whole. Personally I would probably take a warlock engineer instead of 1 of the plague monk units/plague priests and then get some command points in reserve to stop you running. Also the extra wizard help with scenarios that need them. I'm not a big fan of the vermin lord corruptor, I don't tend to find his command ability worth it most of the time and he lack the power in combat of the others, also plague is handy but no more of less useful than a lot of the other spells from the other vermin lords. He is cheap though. I would give the crown of conquest to someone other than the grey seer as well. His command ability means he can help stop the army running away as is, and he doesn't need to be near combat for his spell so better off on someone else. Do you have a particular play style out of interest that you favour, as that can influence what advice I would suggest?

so hope you guys liked my first analysis post, here I am back with part 2 or the list breakdown. Clanrats So my list (and any self respecting verminous list imo) has a lot of clanrats, x4 units of 40 to be exact. These guys are the there to form the basis of any of my plans and tactics. I have opted for them to be all armed with hand weapons as I prefer the consistent damage output as opposed to the 1 turn of extra attacks. I say one turn of extra attacks because once you have lost a few guys you start to lose the benefit of the spear completely and still suffer from the -1 to hit. These guys are the most tactically flexible unit in my army as they can give you a lot of board control options with their retreat 'n' charge and +2 on the run/ retreat distance means they can get where you want them pretty quickly. With this in mind I have recently developed a tactic with these guys to counter elite high damage output units. trick 1 If you take a unit of say 10 Blight nights, who have potential for considerable damage output vs clanrats (Using this as an example as it came up in one of my recent games) and you charge them at either end of their line you opponent will be unable to pile in with the unit to get more that 2 guys attacks. This is because they will need to pile in towards the closest enemy model, but doing so will break their coherency and now means would cost them half a unit of blight knights. The easiest way to do this is with 2 units (luckily we tend to have more than our opponent) and you do not need to even be engaged at both ends, although it makes it easier to pin the unit down. Also multiple clanrat units can do this to multiple enemy units meaning you can tie up the whole enemy army in positions that blunt their damage output. This tactic can be done with any unit really but the bonus with clanrats is that you an continually retreat and charge to make sure this lines up correctly even if you got charged first. The Clanrats best ability is the retreat and charge, I think most players who have used them effectively will probably have worked out the following trick but I thought I would include it anyway as I may do some things a bit differently. trick 2 So you have an objective on the other side of an enemy you want to get to? enemy unit in the way? no problem. If are engaged or engaged with an enemy unit and need to get past you have an 8" retreat move to get away round the back of the enemy. Remember each model can take what ever route it wants as long as the end within 1" of each other its fine so running round both sides of an enemy is viable. Once you have gotten away round the enemy you can either run to the objective or charge an enemy unit (lone wizards/warmachine for example) to then cover even greater distances. Command points can help with both of these. Also on a side note if you want to keep an enemy pinned down, a run move wont get you to the objective or you have not been able to get round the enemy because of the 3", you can re-charge the unit you are were in combat with an use the charge move to get yourself closer to the objective. This works better the bigger your unit as you can cover more distance. this trick always works better the closer you are to a gap or an edge of a unit to break round. Harder to do against large model count armies but things like the PWG help and often clanrats can take on other hordes pretty well in my experience. just to add clanrats their damage output can be really good through sheer weight of attack although anything with a good save with dramatically reduce their effectiveness. So I tend to assume a defensive strategy of damage limitation after the first round of combat hence some of the tricks I have employed. Poison wind Mortars Right PWM are one of the best and equally worst things in my army from experience. There will be games where they do ****** all and I am considering dropping them and then they will have a game where they decimate my opponent. As I mentioned in my last post one of the advantages of these guys comes from the fact that I can drop these early in deployment to see what my opponents doing and the lack of required line of sight and long range means they will still be able to shoot their targets. I like taking 4 of these guys for the simple reason it mean 1 of them should hit a wound each turn on average as well. But almost the nice thing is you will have a turn where more will hit and suddenly the damage output becomes scary for your opponent (especially hordes) While these guys are pretty versatile, killing big unit is where they shine. Improved to hit and a flat damage 6 out put means if 2 hit you will be taking large chunks out of enemy units. I have had games where the have kill 12+ plague bearers/skellies and more in 1 turn then caused even more to run away. I will always pretty much focus fire these guys to cause as much battle shock damage as possible on the big hordes. If there aren't any big unit to shoot the reliability becomes much lower but I tend to actually find targeting big heroes or monsters can go quite well. One lucky hit roll that ends up in 5/6 wounds can make these guys hit a lot less or vulnerable. when shooting non-hordes hope for the best expect the worst is my motto with these guys though. Another thing I have found myself doing with them late game is using them as a road bump or blocking moves. This works as they are cheap enough and expendable (like everything ? ) that I don't mind them dying. Also can use them as a unit for trick 1 to pin enemy units. Plague Monks So these guys are kinda just here to pack a little bit of punch in sheer volume of attacks, and the ability for rend or mortal wounds can be quite handy. Often deployed begin my clanrats I will use these guys mid game to charge in and support any weaknesses. Also I always go for dual blades as fielding them in small units means the extra range is rarely used, in addition how I sometimes use PCB (see trick 3) I have found the plague monks good at taking on monsters as the high number of attack in a small numbers and potential for rending/mortal wounds even when they die can help to bring these guys down. Even better if you use the scroll. Never expect these guys to survive the game, they are there to make the PCB better and to try and hurt something. Plague Censer Bearers The more I use these guys the more I appreciate their potential for damage output. Although the need to be within 13" of the plague monks at all time to be worth it. I will throw them in against anything I need to kill and always use them first in combat if they can be hit back. putting out up to 30 attack with re-rolls to hit while at rend -1 can hurt most things. They will then die next turn but who cares really, they are cheap. Trick 3 Another trick for you guys here especially if you can reliably get the charge. Deploy these guys in behind or in the middle of you other units so they are the 3 rank deep. This means that so long as you opponent doesn't have 2" range weapons then will be free to attack without fear of being hit back. may have to sacrifice the extra attack on the charge but adds some nice punch to clanrats or plague monks. I have been tempted to play around with the idea of putting more of these guys in my list to replicate trick 3 across several units to add some punch. Coming up with what to drop is the hard part. (also will now test them in smaller units as well ? ) Gutter Runners Consistently the unit that seemingly never does anything in my army before dying. they do however fulfil a good distraction roll and can put pressure on opponent objectives early on. Capable of taking down supporting characters they have their uses but cant be relied upon in this role and seem to run at first chance. Splitting these guys into smaller unit is definitely on my agenda now as they are best as distraction and 2 distraction are better than 1. Warlock Engineer/Grey seeer/Warlord The seer and the Warlock provides me with a nice bit of mortal wound output and is great at scaring those monsters/heroes or hordes respectively and give an bit of resitence to magic. The grey seer is the general and has cunning deceiver so he can stay far back trying to get command points while still being useful via spells and command abilities. The Warlord and that of all of my heroes though is to give enough coverage to , crown of command, inspire presence or other command abilities when need to. Keeping them behind you lines and away from harm is the most important part of your turns, as once you start running away keeping/claiming those objectives makes it much harder. Trick 4 Not so much a trick to be honest in game more list building but giving the warlord the artefact now means I have an additional model for claiming objectives in games that require a wizard or model with an artefact. I take him with clan shield as well seeing to make him as survivable as possible. If he does get stuck in combat remember to attack with him first for the chance to get out of there before he get killed. Verminlord Warbringer This Guy dies a lot, but that's because he looks big and scary, and to be honest he is. One of the only things in my army that really puts out that much damage on his own he can take most things on the charge. While may have some rend though its not amazing so can struggle vs really good amour. His command ability in the army can make 2 units of clanrats horrifically good, however I would still advise you save points unless you have excess for inspiring presence. Death frenzy can be quite a useful spell as well if you know a unit is going to take a charge from something scary and gives you flexability in choosing order of units to strike. Trick 5 Cast death frenzy on the Verminlord warbringer, charge him into something scary. Attack deal some damage, get killed, kill the thing back. Sometimes even doing this puts people off attacking him as facing another round of attacks from him is scary. Despite his power output this guy can be pretty good in support fulfilling a role like the other hero's but also will attract a lot of attention, attention than not being directed at the rest of your army so don't be surprised if he goes down quick. If the latter is the case see if he can take as much down with him as possible before he does, hence trick 5 being handy. Right I don't think I have missed anything in my army. Hope you guys appreciate my analysis and if you have any questions or think I am wrong let me know makes it feel like spending the time typing this was worth it ? Also if you want my opinions on anything else let me know, I may do a army in practice in a battle with pics analysis if I can get round to it as well if you guys want to see everything I talk about in this post and the last in actual practice.

@Mayple yeah I agree with the lack of basic lone breaking power in a horde. But I have found storm vermin to costly and easy to bring deal with for a lot of armies. Although I do want to experiment with them more. Absolutely right with the retreat and move round tactics winning games. Actually found that against players who know this tactic is coming it's quite hard for them to stop but when I get time to do the follow up post I will go into this kinda thing. Intresting points on splitting the units, the gutter runners do look like they may benifit from being 2 units. The censer bearers I am not sure if I would as I like the size to pack some damage serious damage as a whole unit who attack at the same time. Good suggestions though and will give them a shot.

Hey guys I am back after a bit of absence from here although I have now had a lot more experience with my list I posted back a few months ago. For a refresher my list is as follows: Grey Seer (general, Cunning deceiver) Warlord (crown of command) Warlock engineer Verminlord Warbringer x40 clanrats x40 clanrats x40 clanrats x40 clanrats x4 wind mortars x10 gutter runners x10 censer bearers x20 plague monks (dual blades + all the magubins) So basically why am I posting list again? mainly because I want to share my experiences with it an what I have learned and I think we have one of the most underrated armies but requires new tactics and thinking to that I see with most competitive lists. So I have now played about 16 games with this list and after losing my 1st couple of games I went on a 13 game win streak until a couple of weeks ago where I lost my most recent game with them. The majority of these game have been in tournament play as well. Just as a side note as well, my AoS experience is limited to pretty much 20 games ever and I have not faced several armies yet which I know are big right now including Khorne, deepkin and a few others. Observation 1 So where to start of a game, I am never going to have the choice to go first or not so I made may peace with it along time ago. While this can been seen as a loss I see it as I have won deployment. Most of the time my opponent has finished deploying before I have had to put anything significant down. The mortars are really handy in this regard with long range, single units and no need for line of sight pretty much always my first 4 drops as they can go anywhere and still be effective. This then means I can now start to evaluate my opponents deployment and counter appropriately with my other units and I found often gives me a significant advantage. However you still do lose the chance to decide if you go first or not but you often can work out if you opponent will want to or not and deploy to counter. Observation 2 One thing I have found is skaven can pretty much win any objective based game as long as they survive til the end of turn 5. This is because with a few exceptions its all numbers based for these, the individual specifications may change but really who ever has more models in the right place wins. So based off this, I very rarely actually go out of my way to try to kill my opponent most of the time, unless the unit needs to be removed its all about reducing casualties for me and claiming the objectives at the right time. I have learnt several tricks to achieve this other my games and will probably go into details on this later. Observation 3 No one has any idea what a true old fashioned skaven army does. In nearly every game I have played at a tournament most people have had not idea what my army does and are not ready for even the simplest tricks we have (retreat and charge). I have won many games against good competitive players who have thought they had the game wrapped up because the could not see some of the skaven trickery coming. Observation 4 AoS.2 makes us so much better, the simple fact that we can easily stop our big units from crumbling on a need to basis now is a gift from the horned rat. Throw in the crown of command and those blocks are not dying and holding those objectives or tying up those units for much longer. Observation 5 Command points are to saved when possible. With the unpredictable nature of double turns and player another person saving those commands points to stop people running away or re-rolling that important charge distance is more important than +1 attack or re-rolls in combat (most of the time). I have only spent command points on aggressive abilities when I either have enough to spare or really need to put out some damage output. Even when you appear to have the upper hand its often better to be safer and keep them in case luck goes against you or you didn't see something coming. Observation 6 this one relates a bit to a couple of the others, but sometimes a turn of doing nothing is actually a good thing. Often I have been given the first turn and find myself unable to do much, so what do I do? not much. What I do try though is to make sure I negate my opponents ability to do much. Usually if you are given the first turn it is because you opponent cant hurt you turn 1 and want you to move into a position that you can be hurt. So I have recently started choosing not to do anything overly aggressive and have even moved my army backwards. The reasoning for this is 2 things. First I can stock up on command points (something my army lacks to start with). And second, none of my models will die for a turn. These mean that I am going to have more numbers for longer and increase my chances of controlling those objectives. On a side note, some scenarios may require you to be more aggressive but as long stay on an equal footing victory points wise you don't need to make the big risky moves til the end. I will post a army in practice analysis, as well as some tips and tricks I have found for it in another post and there are probably some other things I forgot to mention. But please feel free to give your opinions on my observations an maybe share your own.

I personally always go for swords as the better stats mean they are superior for more of the game as the numbers drop, whereas spear will only be better for 1 round of combat normally

I would have to play a few more events before I could pass judgement on that but I can give you my initial impressions. Also before this sounds like an outsider whiney post on aos I throughly enjoy the game and blackout and intend to do so more, this is more my critical analysis of the system in competitive play. While I think aos as a casual/fun pick up game works incredibly well I have found that the competitive side seems a bit unbalanced and get bogged down compared to what I am used to also I think the randomness leads to certain build that can negate this. To try and explain what I mean by that is I feel the biggest issue with tournement play is to many rules, in to many places. Basically there are a lot of list that seem to be designed around the idea of stacking so many rules and abilities on top of one another to make ultimate unit combos. This can make boring games for me as being able to remember all the rules seems to be more important than the actual tactical play, to the point that I read an article from one of top players where he states that part of the armys trick was that opponents couldn't remember all the rules and would commit to unfavourable match ups. On a more positive note I really like the scenarios and how they are used in competition now, as being able to think about objectives rather than just kill each other is so much more tactical and is something that is similar to hobbit sbg. As I get more experience my opinion may change. One thing I have noticed though while looking at tournements is that they are all 2000pts pretty much. Which seems really stale to me . Where is the variaty? some armies will be better at different points values than others and it doesn't challenge people to adapt and change lists. But I have enjoyed it so far and am gonna do a few more events and would encourage others to do so as well.

Sorry for posting this up so late but he is a 'brief' overview of how i got on at the recent blackout event, where i was the only skaven player in the 96 players who attended. First a bit of context, heading into this event I was fairly new still to AoS having only played a little over 10 games sporadically since just before the release of the generals handbook 2017. This was to be my first 'proper' aos tournament as i had done a local club one but with the fraction of the players, i have however played the lord of the rings/hobbit SBG competitively for the few years so i am used to war gaming tournaments in some aspect. Because of this i was kinda heading in blind, with a list that i thought could achieve objectives but no idea what most armies can do and limited practice optimistically hoping to win 3 of my 5 games. Also just to note as i am doing this from memory some of the details like scenario names and opponent unit will be pretty vague, also the event was using the new realm rules however the effect of the realm was decided in the scenario pack before the weekend. Oh and i am no writer so there will be man many spelling mistakes a grammar errors, so sorry in advance. The List My list was cobbled together from what i had from back in the days of warhammer fantasy and crafted into what i felt gave me the most all comers list as i had no idea what most armies can do on the field (only played undead, tzeentch, a lot of nurgle and stormcasts prior and these were all before the new rules). my list was as follows. -Grey seer (general) Cunning Deciever - Verminlord Warbringer - Warlock Engineer - Warlord Crown of Command X40 Clanrats (hand weps+shields) X40 Clanrats (hand weps+shields) X40 Clanrats (hand weps+shields) X40 Clanrats (hand weps+shields) Poison wind mortar Poison wind mortar Poison wind mortar Poison wind mortar x10 gutter runner x20 plague monks (paired fotid blades and all the stuff) x10 Plague Censer bearers Game 1 vs Stormcast eternals (+skinks) First game up and the first scenario was a game fought length ways with 3 objectives in the middle in which one of the 3 would be worth 3 point instead of one, this was randomly determined at the start of each battle round. The game would be fought in the realm of fire. My opponent had a really nice looking army mainly made up of stormcasts, including a couple of unit of guys with bows, a lord of gryph, a couple of teachers(?), 3 units of skinks, a standard bearer and a large unit of guys with what looked like imitation jezzails with crossbows. So after deployment i had a front line consisting of my clanrat units and then my other stuff sprinkled behind or inbetween he chose to have first turn. Turns out that big shooting stormcast unit is horribly good especially when +1 to wound is cast on them and the preceed to kill 20 clanrats in 1 unit due to a command ability and then kill 20 from another unit. other casualties from his first turn included the warlord who due to some bad placement on my behalf died from the teacher guys killing him via mortal wounds with some help of the other smaller shooting units. So before my 1st turn i had already lost the crown of command and 2 whole clanrat units to battleshock, OUCH! (pic below halfway through his first hero phase) my first turn pretty much consisted of me moving up and charging the skinks with my remaining clanrat units on the flanks my plague monks went up through the center to fill the void. and my surviving 3 mortars didn't really do anything. the gutter runner also came on the board on the left near some of his bow guys. At the end of turn 1 I was trailing by 1 point and getting the next priority would help out . I lost priority and found myself being shot at again, this time he took out my censer bearers and some of the rats on the left flank who remained due to inspiring presence from my warlock. He scored another 4 points and his stormcast line had pretty much moved up to the center to help him claim the objectives. My next turn saw the vermin lord wipe out the bow guys on the far flank in combat, the clanrats killing the skinks (couldn't run away this time) the left flank saw the clanrat unit their engage the skinks and the other unit of bowman and my gutter runners charging but not doing much against his big bow unit. The monks in the center failed to get close enough and charge. I scored 4pts to remain 1 behind. Again i lost priority and had to wait for my next go this time saw my opponent focus his range weaponry on the verminlord severely wounding him, combat saw very little happen although my gutterunners took a couple of casualties and ran away. he managed to score 4 points once again with the 3 point remaining on the left flank were he edged me for models after moving more units into range and stopping me from getting and closer with pile ins. My turn however saw my most effective round yet my verminlord charged his 2 teacher guys after failing to roll high enough to get to his heroes or units in the middle the plauge monks charge the big scary bow unit who got to shoot me when i charged (lucklily i had lowered their numbers a tad with magic and ranged stuff) reducing them by half. The clanrat unit on the right then charged aross the center engagning 2 heroes a combat orientated stormcast unit. This unit had been buffed by my magic from the lore of fire to have damage 2, The proceed to kill both heroes and nearly wipe out the unit. the plague monks survived the combat and took some of the cross bow guys down and the clanrat unit on the left took the objective and engaged in a even fight with the stormies on the left. I scored 4 points to remain 1 behind again as i had to abandon the objective on the right to make a move on the more valuable center objective. Once again a priority roll in my favor and a double turn could have seen me swing the game in my favour but i lost it again (sigh). Most notable thing from his turn was that his scary bow guys wiped out the plague monks in the shooting phase (cant shoot out of your own combat now) and he managed to kill the verminlord with his other remaining shooting but not before he had slain his teacher guys the turn before. My turn saw my numbers begin to dwindle as i could not replace the lost guys with more rats any more i continued to hold the 2 centre objectives but both of my remaining clanrat units had now dropped below 10. I did tie the game on points however after turn 4 although if i did not get the next turn i could not feesible win. Sadly wining the roll off in this game was not to be as i lost again and saw my remaining forces in the wiped out with the engineer the only survivor and unable to get the number required to the objectives to win the game. in the end we were both nearly wiped out but not winning key roll offs cost me after a retrospectively poor deployment against this army. If i had known the capabilities of the main shooting unit i would have made sure to remain out of range during deployment so as to avoid the loss of 2 clanrat unit before the game began. Nice guy to play with a very nice army and lessons learnt ready for game 2 after having been able to eliminate all the traitors in my ranks game 1. I will post the other games as i get them done as i seem to be waffling on more than i though i would.

one thing i would change and try to fit in would be to drop 50pts so i start the game with a command point, as vs heavy shooting armies that i faced running away first turn was an issue.