The new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is firmly underway, and in-person competitive gaming events are returning to the world stage. So we’ve turned to 2019 Warhammer Hero and regular Metawatch contributor Daniel Street from AoS Shorts for a wide-ranging update on who’s bossing the Mortal Realms.
Update on the Global Tournament Scene
Dan: October has been a bumper month for Warhammer Age of Sigmar tournaments around the world. We have now had 64 events playing five rounds of 2,000 points using the General’s Handbook 2021. This has given our statisticians plenty to work with – here’s what we know.
While the top six factions remain the same, we have had some big movement in the chasing pack, with both Orruk Warclans and Stormcast Eternals substantially increasing their share of results that are four wins or higher at tournaments.
The release of the new battletome and the addition of Kruleboyz has seen Orruk Warclans now become the most popular faction in the game, edging Sons of Behemat out of the top spot. Orruk Warclans have nearly doubled in success rates – jumping from 3.27% of armies winning four or more times, to 6.05%. The Stormcast Eternals have seen a similar Battletome bounce, going from 1.22% to 4.19%.
October also saw large jumps for Seraphon with a very strong run of 5-0 results, while the Legion of the First Prince showed its impact as a control list by combining abilities from a Khorne Daemon Prince and Be’lakor himself to prevent opponents from taking key actions.
Battle Tactics and Grand Strategies
The Warhammer Age of Sigmar Matched Play Event held at Warhammer World on the 16th and 17th of October used the First Blood, Tectonic Interference, Survival of the Fittest, Power Struggle, and Feral Foray battleplans.
Only Tectonic Interference and Survival of the Fittest were used in the Warhammer Open series in the US, making for a different competitive experience in this event.
In the current edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, battle tactics and grand strategies are crucial for winning games – the small differences eked out by achieving your own or depriving your opponent of theirs can be the difference between victory and defeat.
Players select a grand strategy for their army on their army list before the start of a tournament. If a player completes that grand strategy during a game, they score three victory points.
At the Warhammer World event, the most popular strategies were Prized Sorcery (15), Beast Master (11), and Hold the Line (10), with Dominating Presence, Waaagh!, Pillars of Belief, and Predator's Domain all taken by just one player each.
Almost all of these strategies involve keeping a particular unit type in your army alive until the end of the battle. They are therefore independent of any match-up you may face, unlike Vendetta, which requires you to kill the opposing general – who may be a Mega-Gargant with a 5+ ward save!
There are also several ways to keep your key pieces alive, like running multiple units, healing Heroes, using Mystic Shield and save stacking, giving the Amulet of Destiny or other ward saves to Leaders, Rally, and any faction abilities for healing or restoring models to units.
Only two players took grand strategies which would be influenced by their opponent – Dominating Presence (having more units alive at the end of the battle than your opponent) and Predator’s Domain (controlling more terrain pieces). Dominating Presence was taken with a Kharadron Overlords army with nine units, which achieved the strategy in four out of five games.
Players achieved their grand strategy 67% of the time, with a wide variance across the different battleplans.
At the start of their hero phase, a player picks one battle tactic from the relevant battlepack in order to complete that turn. Completing a battle tactic is worth two victory points, so there is a potential swing of 20 victory points available (10 victory points for your tactics and 10 for your opponent).
Each battle tactic can only be used once per game, so careful thought needs to be given to which tactics are picked and when. You don’t want to find yourself caught short with no viable options.
The most popular battle tactics at the event were Broken Ranks (152), Conquer (126), Aggressive Expansion (119), Ferocious Advance (107), and Savage Spearhead (106).
With the Ghurish Heartlands battlepack, the battle tactics that award a bonus point for achieving them with a Monster were popular. Once again, so too were those that can be achieved independently of your opponent’s actions – for example, Ferocious Advance and Savage Spearhead, which depend on your own movement or your ability to deploy into enemy territory.
With games going to five rounds around 90% of the time at Warhammer World, getting every last victory point from battle tactics is important. The event pack had some indicative timings that could be useful to any event organiser trying to encourage players to complete all five battle rounds within two hours and forty-five minutes.
Ben took his Stormcast Eternals army out for a run with the new book, using his Dracothian Guard as a Battleline option with units of two models. Multiple small units (MSU) can be a great counter to the popular Sons of Behemat armies.
Ben’s list maximises the benefits of its MSU play style and the Scions of the Storm allegiance ability.
The army has the flexibility to drop units where they can put pressure on objectives or achieve battle tactics, especially in later turns when the board can be more open. Ben’s units of two cavalry have a small footprint and so can be hard for opponents to screen out.
Ben ran his Tempestors as a larger unit of four because they were often shooting the same target, so keeping them together maximised the benefit of command abilities and other buffs.
When paired with the Tempestors’ shooting, the Fulminators didn’t need to be in units larger than two models in order to take out their targets. While Fulminators are generally considered the strongest choice among the Dracothian Guard, Desolators and Concussors gave him more options in later game turns and when he was unable to charge.
Finally, being a two-drop list (due to being composed of a Battle Regiment and a Redemption Brotherhood), Ben knew that he was likely to control the choice of turn against Sons of Behemat. He could then use his drops from the sky to kill a Mega-Gargant and seriously wound another on their turn of arrival.
In contrast to Ben’s list, Darryl’s is all based on control – setting the pace of the game, stopping his opponent’s plans, and capitalising on their mistakes.
The Khorne Daemon Prince’s command ability, Bloodslick Ground, halves all enemy run and charge rolls within 18″. Combined with the Redeploy command ability, this can make it impossible for the enemy to complete a charge. This move can be especially useful at preventing them from achieving a battle tactic such as Slay the Warlord.
Kairos Fateweaver’s Gift of Change spell, combined with the Umbral Spellportal, allowed Darryl to target a shooting unit 36″ away and tie them up with a Chaos Spawn to prevent them from using Unleash Hell and maybe lock the shooting unit down for the next turn.
Be'lakor’s Dark Master ability can effectively shut down an enemy unit for a turn (dice rolls permitting). Given that the ability can be used after the enemy general has decided their battle tactic and heroic actions, Darryl often used this ability to hinder that battle tactic or to shut down a major threat at a key point in the game.
He also maximised the points from battle tactics. While his list only has two Monsters, he could cast Metamorphosis to turn the Blue Scribes into a Monster using their Scrolls of Sorcery, in order to have three Monsters complete the Ferocious Advance battle tactic. They can then be used to achieve Savage Spearhead with Be'lakor.
The Prized Sorcery grand strategy was the obvious choice for a list with four Wizards. While Kairos and the Blue Scribes try to stay out of harm’s way, the Contorted Epitome is a distraction piece that could be discarded once it helped cast the Umbral Spellportal.
Fabian has run this list at many UK events. Bossy Pants and Clever Clogs (add 1 to hit against Heroes and Wizards) were taken to increase the chance of good damage output from the Gatebreaker – going from 4+ to hit to 3+ is a big difference. Fabian’s list balances increased damage output over the Taker Tribes list with strong objective-holding power, as each Mega-Gargant counts for 20 models on objectives.
Fabian also maximised the use of the new White Dwarf battalion rules for Sons of Behemat – the Bosses of the Stomp. By taking the battalion twice, Fabian could take three artefacts – Amulet of Destiny, Enchanted Portcullis, and Arcane Tome.
Fabian can stack +3 to a Mega-Gargant’s Save (Finest Hour, Mystic Shield, and All-out Defence). When he needs to be very aggressive, the Warstomper can have 10 attacks, hitting on 2+ with All-Out Attack and Titanic Struggle, and wounding on 2+, with Rend -2 and Damage 3 thanks to Flaming Weapon.
Thanks, Dan. That concludes our snapshot of the competitive scene in Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Who knows what’ll happen in the near future with the release of the Maggotkin of Nurgle battletome and the Tome Celestial updates currently appearing in every new issue of White Dwarf? Whatever happens, it’s sure to be an exciting time for the Mortal Realms!