Things are steadily returning to normal around the globe, meaning the reintroduction of regular gaming and even events for Warhammer Age of Sigmar. With more and more players getting the opportunity to put the latest and greatest edition through its paces, the current meta is taking shape. Thankfully, 2019 Warhammer Hero and regular Metawatch contributor Daniel Street from AoS Shorts is here to break down the latest data and discuss the results from first official Warhammer Age of Sigmar event of the new edition – the Warhammer Open Orlando.
Daniel: Since the launch of the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar and the General’s Handbook 2021, we’ve now had over 20 events around the world, each comprising five rounds of 2,000-point matched play games. One of the largest of these was the Warhammer Open event in Orlando, Florida, with 67 players descending on the Hyatt Regency Orlando to fight for the spoils in the first of three US Grand Tournaments.
Battleplans were not revealed in advance, encouraging players to prepare for any eventuality. But what did they need to prepare for?
Well, the early meta since the General’s Handbook 2021 has resulted in a fairly even distribution of factions at events. There are few significant outlier factions with a disproportionate percentage of event fields. The most prevalent factions worldwide have been Sons of Behemat (7.81%), Soulblight Gravelords (6.71%), and Seraphon (6.33%).*
Sons of Behemat are perfectly suited for the new edition with their resilience, strong objective-capturing power, Monster and Battleline bonuses, and the recent improvement to their Longshanks rule. If you want to succeed on the top tables, you need a plan for dealing with Mega-Gargants.
Outside of the Sons of Behemat, you’ll need an answer for the game’s deadliest characters – in particular Archaon in Disciples of Tzeentch armies, Morathi-Khaine, and everyone’s favourite duardin, Gotrek Gurnisson.
The new edition is also characterised by relatively easy ways to stack save bonuses to protect your units against Rend. Mortal wound output, or other methods of getting around units with high armour saves, are vital.
The Warhammer Open Orlando saw a larger than expected attendance of Lumineth Realm-lords and Idoneth Deepkin armies, with fewer Sons of Behemat armies than the worldwide average.
Since the launch of the new edition, every faction in Warhammer Age of Sigmar has achieved at least one result of 4+ wins at a five-round event (i.e. either a 5-0, four wins one draw, or four wins one loss), and 16 factions have gone all the way to record a five-win result.
As you can see from the table below, the most prevalent factions on the top tables on Day Two have been Sons of Behemat, Disciples of Tzeentch, Seraphon, Lumineth Realm-lords, Daughters of Khaine, Soulblight Gravelords, and Slaves to Darkness. All of these factions currently outperform their prevalence in the meta.
With that being the case, how did the Warhammer Open Orlando field compare? The five battleplans announced on the first day of the Warhammer Open Orlando were Veins of Ghur, Marking Territory, Tectonic Interference, Survival of the Fittest, and Savage Gains. The only army to go 5-0 was Cody Saults’ Soublight Gravelords army of the Vyrkos Dynasty. Factions that had four wins were:
Seraphon (Thunder Lizard) x2
Disciples of Tzeentch (Hosts Arcanum) x2
Idoneth Deepkin (Dhom-Hain) x2
Sons of Behemat (Taker Tribe)
Hedonites of Slaanesh (Lurid Haze Invaders Host)
Lumineth Realm-lords (Alumnia)
Daughters of Khaine (Khelt Nar)
Let’s dive in and have a closer look at the top three lists that took the podium places for Best General.
Cody’s list relies on solid Battleline choices in the Deadwalker Zombies and Dire Wolves. He complements them with a core of powerful Heroes and the massive high-Rend combat threat of Prince Vhordrai (paired with the free use of the Coven Throne’s command ability to improve his resilience thanks to the Vyrkos’ Pack Alpha command trait).
The Battleline choices are great for seizing mid-board objectives, and with the army’s resurrection abilities, five Heroes, and multiple power centres, at least one unit is likely to be alive (well, sort of alive, anyway) at the end of the game to achieve the Hold the Line grand strategy.
Cody used Radukar aggressively, throwing him forward with the protection of his summoned Dire Wolves for screening. Radukar works well in tandem with Vhordrai because:
Vhordrai’s command ability can allow Radukar to fight in the hero phase and potentially escape being bogged down in an undesirable combat
Radukar’s command ability can give Vhordrai extra Attacks if wholly within 18" after Radukar charges
The Vyrkos subfaction abilities give some support to Belladamma’s casting bonuses, allowing the army to compete with more magically dominant forces. Belladamma’s spell works well against shooting armies as it allows you to set up Dire Wolves in a way that prevents the shooting unit’s ability to Unleash Hell, and her command ability allows a Dire Wolves unit to pile in from 6" away.
The Taker Tribe has been the most popular choice for Sons of Behemat armies because it improves the objective-capturing power of both Mega-Gargants and Mancrusher Gargants. With three Mega-Gargants, the Beast Master grand strategy was a clear choice.
Zach took two Kraken-Eaters and a Gatebreaker with the Amulet of Destiny for increased resilience. Interestingly, he also took the Krakenskin Sandals artefact on one of his Kraken-Eaters for extra Attacks, Rend and damage output, rather than the more common Glowy Lantern choice for casting Mystic Shield. Finally, with a unit of three Mancrusher Gargants, Zach was probably playing aggressively, pushing all four units forward rather than leaving a solitary Mancrusher sitting on a home objective.
Thunder Lizard have been the go-to subfaction for Seraphon in the new edition thanks to the bonuses for Monsters (which the monstrous rampage rules considerably improved), as well as their increased Attacks and damage reduction from Scaly Skin. Greg had three Monsters for his Beast Master grand strategy, and with two Bastiladons at his disposal, he had plenty of anti-Chaos firepower, which helped in the last two rounds.
Greg says he didn’t take the common choice of a Starpriest to increase his Skinks’ damage output because he was solely using the Skinks for holding objectives. In particular, he used the Skink blocks to outnumber any Pink Horrors sitting on an objective – in fact, he tried to avoid inflicting any damage upon them by minimising the number of models in range after pile-in, in order to stop the daemons from splitting and increasing their numbers.
With the spare points from the absent Starpriest, Greg took a Starseer for more command point generation (Seraphon armies are CP-hungry) and for the seer’s warscroll spell. To support the Starseer, Greg took an Astrolith Bearer to increase the range of his spells and add casting bonuses.
Thanks, Daniel. If the Warhammer Open Orlando is anything to go by, there are plenty of Monsters and big, powerful Heroes out there competing for the top tables in events. Make sure you tool up with everything you need to take them on if you’re looking to keep up with the meta. How do you plan on countering such threats? Let us know on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page.
* Worldwide meta percentage statistics courtesy of DKHM Wargames. All statistics in this article are current as of the 31st of August 2021.