Upcoming AoS tournament - List and Tactics

[Tullbeard]

Hi all,

I've got an upcoming tournament this weekend and wanted to share my list with you all and get some feedback on where it's potential strengths and weaknesses may lie. The rules of the tournament are simple: maximum 60 models in your army but you and the opponent have to have a discussion beforehand to ensure that the armies are approximately balanced. The tournament is heavy on the sportsmanship aspect and isn't too focused on winning at all costs (which is something that I personally like).

My army list is as follows:

One Dreadlord on Black Dragon
One Sorceress
One Sorceress on Cold One
One Master Battle Standard Bearer
20 Black Guard
20 Darkshards
5 Cold One Knights
5 Dark Riders
One Cold One Chariot
One War Hydra
One Reaper Bolt Thrower

Can anyone identify any major strengths or weaknesses with this list? What type of armies do you think I'll struggle against?

I have a fairly fast moving, hard hitting element of the army (Black Dragon, Knights, Hydra and Chariot) with a decent back line. And if I can shield the Black Guard sufficiently I have found that they can crack open most targets. Perhaps my army isn't resilient enough?
I unfortunately don't have any alternative models, so I'm stuck with this list , but I'd appreciate some discussion about how I can maximise it's advantages and protect my weaknesses.

There are 5 games being played using the following scenarios:
Kill the Beast
War of Storms
Breakthrough
The Ritual
Hold or Die

What has others experiences of AoS tournaments been like so far?

Thanks all for any feedback.

[Calisson]

Monsters and large units are strong.
Depending on the size of the table, long range warmachines are strong, too.

[Daeron]

Unfortunately, I don't have as much experience with AoS as much as I would like. I see only a few weaknesses, such as the Darkshards being at exactly 20. I think giving them 25 models would make their ability notably stronger. I think the Sorceress on Cold One is alright, but if you're looking for a mobile wizard, then I would recommend 5 Warlocks over the 1 Sorceress.
But since you're playing with this fixed list, hmm... I'd need a bit more time to ponder on the strengths and weaknesses. AoS seems to revolve a lot around synergies between a few units. At least, it did in my games.

Do you know what you will be up against?

Also, I need to check the scenarios since I only played the campaign so far.

[PaintedDeath]

I made a post below about the viability of Chillwind, but to sum it up, don't use it. You'd be better off relying on Arcane bolt if you'd like to do some damage.

[Tullbeard]

Thanks for the insightful article about Chillwind PaintedDeath; I definitely agree with your conclusion. Sometimes it's fun using it in casual games due to the pleasure of rolling a fistful of dice compared to just one, but you're correct and I will stay clear of it in this tournament.

Daeron, you raise a good point regarding the unit size. Definitely next on my list is to increase the numbers of my Darkshards slightly to offer a bit of protection to losses to prevent the loss of the +1 to hit. Also as it stands, I can't really sacrifice Darkshards with my Sorceress without taking a big hit to shooting (unless of course I've already lost a few models).

Unfortunately I don't know which armies I will be against. Have people got any insight into what armies they are seeing a lot of? My local club is very heavy on Chaos and Daemon players, have others experienced that? To be honest, I'd love a few games against more Order players as I haven't had many AoS games against those races yet.

[Tullbeard]

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd send a quick update on how the tournament went. I won one game, drew two games and lost two games. However, due to the way the tournament worked , I ended up coming 8th out of the 32 players - not too bad for my first tournament!

I thought my list was quite well balanced and it certainly had enough punch where needed (that Dreadlord of black dragon is gorgeous). Problem I ran into was with the real lack of a comp system (I.e. It was all about roughly balancing it with a chat with the opponent), but I ran into a couple people who weren't really open to changing their line ups too much - this led to games where they fielded basically lots of elite units and monsters. The scenarios helped balance this out a bit, so it wasn't too bad.

Favourite game of the tournament was a really fun fight against the Sylvaneth and wood elves, which gave a great moment of my dragon going toe to toe with a wood elf dragon. My Dreadlord promptly made mincemeat of the wood elf Lord ( the one extra fearsome jaw attack compared to the wood elf is what sealed the deal).

Surprised by a distinct lack of high elves, empire, dwarfs and (to a lesser extent) beastmen and Brettonia. At least 2/3 of people were playing chaos or death armies.

[Daeron]

That's peculiar. For Chaos I could point at the recent releases which might explain part of their success. I must admit, Death looks very good as of late, purely in style. Perhaps it's also fun in terms of game mechanics.

[Calisson]

Death armies love summoning more and more units.