HH AoS Winter League Blog 2

The first round of the winter AoS league is complete and we are ready and raring for another!

So far (touches wood) no army sales have taken place so the next round should proceed as Sigmar intended, per the schedule.

Before looking at this month’s battleplan we should really have a recap on round 1 and take a moment to bask in the accuracy of my predictions for which I have the extra leeway of only predicting winners and not scores:

Aid (The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone) vs Alden (cows and kangaroos, an unexpected love story)

Prediction - Alden wins

Result - Alden wins 77-15

Poor Aid, he hasn’t played AoS for well over 6 months, decides to try a new army in the league and gets drawn into Alden fresh off the back of a 5-0 GT win.

We call this the path to podium though; get smashed game 1 then the easiest route to a strong finish is laid out in front of you! 

I boldly predicted Alden would win this one and he duly obliged, hopefully it was a good learning experience for Aid going forward!

Max Berry (burly boys™) vs Kyle (intense skittering)

Prediction - Kyle victory

Result - Max wins 57-52

This match is the first of a series of extremely tight games played in round 1, demonstrating that the skill level is relatively well-matched amongst much of the league (whether that’s equally good or equally bad, time will tell).

This game came down to the last couple of dice rolls which is always a great way for a game to end, with Max scraping past Kyle having scored strong early on, but then dropping off in the latter half of the match.

Ogors once again demonstrating that yeeting across the board is a perfectly viable strategy.

Callum (giant expectations) vs Pete (the ginger tide)

Prediction - Callum wins (because Pete hates winning)

Result - Callum wins 60-47

This was a proper tactical battle, I looked over and after 2 rounds the giants had not engaged the dwarves at all due to Pete popping a certain army-wide fights first ability.

Pete reliably informs me that a single goblin completely screwed this game for him, being able to deep strike outside 9” onto his home objective and being able to stay just out of reach of the little stumpy Dwarf legs for long enough to swing the score significantly.

Otherwise, this was a pretty close game with Pete scoring pretty solidly but for forgetting manifestations have no control value!

Craig (lacking Ush) vs Andy (big bases are the best, get high all the time)

Prediction - Craig scrapes a win

Result - Craig scrapes a win 58-53

Absolutely on the money with this prediction, I was! This was a game of seeing which of Andy or I could forget the most of our rules and we duly provided many moments of ‘oh I should have done X….’ (Kyle also failed to remind me more than once about Feeding Frenzy so I never used that)

I think I could have won by more but for the ungodly amount of 6+ wards Andy rolled. Those GW dice seem to have something about them but Andy assures me in his last game he rolled terribly throughout so I seem to have caught the rough end of the dice turning in his favour. Next time, one of them is going in the toilet.

Joe (bring your Febreze) vs Leo (revived, refreshed and ratty)

Prediction - Joe victory

Result - Joe wins 56-52

I had the pleasure of witnessing the last few rolls of the dice for this game which was another nail-biter where all results were possible in the last round.

Leo was very happy with his Rat Ogors who did some serious damage, though sadly failed to kill Rotigus with the final swings which might have put the game in his favour.

That said, I think a great game was had, friends were made, and Leo still loves his Skaven so all’s well that ends well!

Liam (Hashut sounds like a dwarf sneezing) vs George (seriously, we need some pest control)

Prediction - George wins because rats are real good right now

Result - George gets a bye win (60-20)

Unfortunately the pox has taken Liam and he was unable (or unwilling) to drag his carcass to a game today, which means George takes the win and we move on to round 2.

Round 2: Roiling Roots

This month’s round features another quite likely killy underdog rule with paired objectives which should provide some fun shenanigans for all.

There will be a battlescroll most likely towards the end of the month (based on the previous one) so expect changes abound going into January’s round!

Ahead of December’s round we have had a few wild card submissions which I will detail in extremely scant detail as part of my predictions below!

Joe (bring your febreze) vs Callum (giant expectations)

Round 2 brings Callum and Joe together once again (if you’re gonna keep winning chaps, you need to expect this!), though I’m not sure how much Joe has played into the Gargants.

The Battleplan this month having 6 objectives means there is a lot of coverage required, which Joe has attempted to mitigate with his Pusgoyles, though the Gargants move a long way quickly, and as Pete learned last month, that teleporting Goblin can be a right pain in the posterior!

This match up in fighting terms might suit Joe, monsters mostly hitting on 4s, with additional Nurgely shenanigans (and army-wide 5+ wards of course) could make it hard for the giants to kill stuff.

That said, Kragnos could easily explode the Daemon Prince or Orghotts which could make a big difference! I expect a close and sweaty game.

Prediction: Joe scrapes past Callum

Alden (cows and kangaroos, an unexpected love story) vs Max Berry (burly boys™) 

The immovable object meets the unstoppable force in this match-up.

Alden’s unkillable castle is going to have a lot of burly boys in its grille quite quickly based on Max’s previous games, and Ogors are 1 of 1 armies that Alden has ever lost to, so there is some psychological warfare to be done before this game takes place!

Presumably however, since that loss Alden has made it his personal mission to learn as much as he possibly can about Ogors in an attempt to ensure such a loss never occurs again, so I would expect him to be very prepared for this game.

Max came here to drink milk and kick ass, and I expect as much subtlety in his game plan which will be to squish puny elves.

Prediction: I can’t look beyond Alden until someone finds some chinks in the armour

Craig (no longer lacking Ush?) vs George (rats, rats everywhere)

Despite quite enjoying my list that I started the league with, I am craving some more monster smashiness, so a wild card has been used, and I am bringing 2 dragons and an Ushoran to a knife fight this round.

We will both be bringing quite a lot of movement to the table, with me having various deep strikes, and rats just constantly scurrying around.

George got a bye win in round 1, so I’m not sure he has had a chance to test the rats which I hope will be something that goes in my favour (assuming I can remember my useful rules).

But, there are lots of threats abound with the ratty menagerie, plus all that healing from the Bell, and the manifestations for the Skaven which are really good.

Prediction: For the 2nd round in a row, Craig scrapes a win

Kyle (intense skittering) vs Andy (big bases are the best, get high all the time)

Both Kyle and Andy have come into this round off the back of extremely tight games, and Kyle has tweaked his list since with a cannon change and battle formation change, which will give rend to clan rats and give Stormvermin extra rend on the charge (yikes).

Andy has retained his faith in Vhordrai who I discovered is extremely smashy, but will need to be careful with some of these massive blocks of rats potentially dragging him to the ground and gnawing him to death.

However, Andy also has some annoying to kill units of skellies who can regenerate lots, so both players will be doing some solid tarpitting to each other.

Prediction: Close game, Kyle to win

Pete (the ginger tide) vs Aid (The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone)

Aid, unfortunately, was greeted by a rampant Alden in round 1, but as I said to him, the run to a podium starts now!

Pete’s (models’) little legs betrayed him in round 1, with Callum being able to run away with the points due to the Duardin’s inability to chase down a lone Goblin.

Tweaks have occurred and Pete is finally trying out the formation which buffs his dudes on the charge, so we will see what kind of output he can get from them.

Aid’s army has a couple of reinforced cavalry units which are liable to run rings around the short legs, however if Gotrek can connect with some of these frail skeletal bodies then there’s gonna be some serious krumpin’

Prediction: I think Pete has this one, eureka moment incoming for battle formation choice ;)

Leo (revived, refreshed and ratty) vs Liam (Hashut sounds like a dwarf sneezing)

Leo had an incredible round 1 with Joe, with the game going to the final dice rolls, but unfortunately only read his battle formation after the game…

Equipped with this forbidden knowledge, Leo has tweaked his list and is likely to be quite smashy and potentially have some tasty 5+ wards on his monsters which could be very useful when faced down with cannons.

In his way however are the Chorfs with their nasty armour saves so some of these ratty 1 rend attacks could very easily bounce. Liam has only played one practice game to date which was also against Skaven, which will likely prove to be effective rehearsal in this instance.

I predict another close game here, with whoever can make the best ‘dark pact’ type rolls (my money is not on Liam in this regard) perhaps coming out the winner.

Prediction: Leo to win this one.

As this is the last blog of the year, I hope everyone has a tolerable festive season and gets all the plastic they wish for!

Now to start cooking Stormcast lists...