SBOT 2 Metagame Part 4 - Legacy Armies
SBOT 2 Metagame Part 1 - Overview
SBOT 2 Metagame Part 2 - Forces of Fantasy
SBOT 2 Metagame Part 3 - Ravaging Hordes
SBOT 2 Metagame Part 4 - Legacy Armies
In part 4 of this metagame review I’ll be looking at the army lists from the legacy PDFs. As with last time I’m going to try and highlight interesting lists and identify trends across lists for an army. A lot of the legacy lists didn’t see much love this event (or from GW) so some of these sections will be pretty short.
Vampire Counts (14 Lists)
With 14 players this is the army list with the most players and far and away the most popular legacy army. Neither of these are too surprising for the event, Vampire Counts are extremely good in Old World on the back of unbreakable units, screams, and the ability to raise lost troops.
So looking at the list we see that the VC lists do tend to group around a few strategies. There a total of 34 screams and including level 1 and 2 casters there are 15 Necromancy casters. A lot of VC lists are aiming to hit their opponent’s leadership. I am surprised that there are not more banshees, and that’s part of a trend of there being limited Ethereal units. I think Ethereal units would have been very strong in SBOT2 due to the lack of Warriors and Daemons of Chaos.
More broadly in characters we see all but one list takes a BSB, and we have 26 wizards across the 14 lists. Vampire Counts got better representation than I expected, most taking 2 wizard levels.
If we look in core there are a lot of Zombie and Die Wolf units, all tend to be around minimum size. Next up are Grave Guard and Crypt Ghouls. The Ghouls are split between minimum 10-ghoul units and larger ones with 25. The Grave Guard all range from 21-30 models.
Only half the lists take anything in special with a mix of Fell Bats, Spirit Hosts, and a single Corpse Cart.
Rare on the other hand is a very popular slot with Terrorgheists and Blood Knights dominating. Blood Knights range from 6-9 models and Terrorgheists often show up in pairs.
Overall I do expect some VC players to do well, it’s a powerful army with a lot of representation.
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# ++ Main Force ++ [2000pts]
## Characters [990pts]
Master Necromancer [450pts]: Hand Weapon, General, Mortis Engine (3x Banshees), Wizard Level 4, Necromancy, Spell Familiar, Skull Staff, Talisman Of Protection
Vampire Count [469pts]: Hand Weapon, Dark Acolyte, Master of the Black Arts, Abyssal Terror (Heavy Armour, Poisonous Tail, Wicked Claws), Wizard Level 2, Illusion, Great Weapon, Lore Familiar, Crown of the Damned
Wight Lord [71pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Battle Standard Bearer, Great Weapon
## Core [534pts]
Crypt Ghouls [90pts]:
• 10x Crypt Ghoul [9pts]: Hand Weapon
Crypt Ghouls [90pts]:
• 10x Crypt Ghoul [9pts]: Hand Weapon
Dire Wolves [40pts]:
• 5x Dire Wolf [8pts]: Hand Weapon
Dire Wolves [40pts]:
• 5x Dire Wolf [8pts]: Hand Weapon
Grave Guard [274pts]:
• 21x Grave Guard [11pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield
• 1x Seneschal [6pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [31pts]: War Banner
• 1x Musician [6pts]
## Special [90pts]
Fell Bats [45pts]:
• 3x Fell Bat [15pts]: Hand Weapon
Fell Bats [45pts]:
• 3x Fell Bat [15pts]: Hand Weapon
## Rare [386pts]
Blood Knights [386pts]:
• 8x Blood Knight [44pts]: Nightmare (Barding, Hand Weapon), Hand Weapon, Lance, Shield, Full Plate Armour
• 1x Kastellan [27pts]: Supernatural Horror
• 1x Standard Bearer [7pts]
First up let’s look at this list. This is a lit that is not going all in on any one thing. There is a Mortis Engine Necromancer taking Necromancy, but that’s the only scream in the list. It’s one of five lists with a Vampire Count on an Abyssal Terror, and like most of those it takes Illusion and a Great Weapon, this list also has a Lore Familiar there. This all results in a Vampire Count with an extremely high damage cap. My worry is putting this many points into a level 2 that could fail to cast or easily have their Spectral Doppleganger dispelled. When possible this list is going to want to put the count far from enemy level 4s, or engage them in combat. The other thing I’ll note about the character slot here is this list has very limited healing. Over 900 points between the Necromancer and Count means that this list is more vulnerable to shooting or grindy combat than most VC lists.
It’s also one of the lists that takes no zombies, filling out core with minimum sized Ghoul units and one of the smaller blocks of Grave Guard. I like this setup, often the units of Grave Guard closer to 30 models end up wasting points, and having 4 smaller cheap units gives a lot of flexibility. I’ve never been impressed by Zombies in VC so I think dropping them is totally reasonable, and this isn’t a list that is going to raise them up to a really big size.
Special does see six Fell Bats, I like these as fast flankers that can threaten war machines or archers.
In rare we have a larger brick of Blood Knights at 8, this and the Vampire Count are this list’s big threats. I think due to the lack of screams and healing this list could struggle in some matchups, but in others having two fast, tough, hard-hitting units will be great.
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++ Main Force ++ [2000pts]
Characters [982pts]
Necromantic Acolyte [140pts]: Hand Weapon, General, Wizard Level 2, Dark Magic, Spell Familiar, Sceptre Of De Noirot
Strigoi Ghoul King [380pts]: Hand Weapon, Dragon Slaying Sword
• 1x Terrorgheist [185pts]: Filth-encrusted Talons, Light Armour, Rancid Maw
Strigoi Ghoul King [395pts]: Hand Weapon, Ogre Blade
• 1x Terrorgheist [185pts]: Filth-encrusted Talons, Light Armour, Rancid Maw
Wight Lord [67pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Battle Standard Bearer
Core [608pts]
Crypt Ghouls [231pts]:
• 25x Crypt Ghoul [9pts]: Hand Weapon
• 1x Crypt Ghast [6pts]
Crypt Ghouls [231pts]:
• 25x Crypt Ghoul [9pts]: Hand Weapon
• 1x Crypt Ghast [6pts]
Zombies [73pts]:
• 21x Zombie [3pts]: Hand Weapon
• 1x Standard Bearer [5pts]
• 1x Musician [5pts]
Zombies [73pts]:
• 21x Zombie [3pts]: Hand Weapon
• 1x Standard Bearer [5pts]
• 1x Musician [5pts]
Rare [410pts]
Terrorgheist [205pts]: Filth-encrusted Talons, Light Armour, Rancid Maw
Terrorgheist [205pts]: Filth-encrusted Talons, Light Armour, Rancid Maw
This list rips. SBOT2 does limit rare selections but doesn’t apply that limit to profiles that can also be a mount. This list takes advantage of that to run 4 Terrorgheists. One Ghoul King takes an Ogre Blade, the other a Dragon Slaying Sword, and both skip defensive items. This list is going to be very aggressive and when it wins, it will win big.
However I think this list has a fair number of weaknesses. First it has no necromancy to go with its 4 screams, I think screams without leadership debuffs are fine, but they won’t have the same consistent damage. Next up it can’t heal many models per turn and has combined that with Zombies. I think that is a mistake and spending those Zombie points on Dire Wolves would have made more sense. It also has 50 Crypt Ghouls and while I like the profile 50 skirmishers is going to be hard to manage and units of 25 skirmishers will have issues taking advantage of their numbers in combat.
The other big issue here is that the four Terrorgheists are squishy. Lacking defensive tech shooty armies will have a field day, and other armies with powerful magic weapons and higher initiative will also be in a very good spot.
All that said this looks like a very fun list to play and play against, it’d be awesome if it does well.
Dark Elves (7 Lists)
Dark Elves having 7 players is more than I would expect and some of the credit has to go to Ed from Close Order who won a recent tournament with a list taking two dragons and a lot of scouts.
Key Units:
20 Dark Rider units (133 total)
8 Dragons
8 Level 4s
7 Bolt Throwers
7 Dark Elf Shade units
4 Doomfire Warlock units
4 Cold One Knights units
The obvious outlier here is Dark Riders. Not only are they by far the most common unit they take up a lot of points, many of them are above minimum size and partake in the menu of upgrades the unit offers. 4 of the lists are using Dark Riders as their only core. And you might think that means Dark Riders are OP, but I’d say it’s less that and more Dark Elves just having bad options for core. Dark Riders are certainly the best option but I don’t think overpowered. Taking 500 points of missile cavalry can work out well in some matchups but versus shooting armies you’ll just be bleeding points.
For the rest of the lists there is a heavy focus on characters, only one list has less than 900 points of characters and the average is 823. There are three double dragon lists and dragons are split 5-3 between Dreadlords and Supreme Sorceresses.
From there most lists decide on some mix of Shades, Bolt Throwers, Doomfire Warlocks, and Cold One knights to fill out special and rare.
Lastly I’ll note there are 31 Focus Familiars, with many casters taking 4-7 of them. Focus Familiar is a 10 point item that lets you pick a point within 12” and cast your spells from there. This shows up a lot on Battle Magic casters and does let you cast and position spells from further away. I do question the lists that are spending 80-140 points on these as they’re single use and you have to be getting a lot of value out of them to make it worth those points in the character slot.
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# ++ Main Force ++ [2000pts]
## Characters [1000pts]
Supreme Sorceress [500pts]: Hand Weapon, General, Black Dragon (Full Plate Armour, Noxious breath N/A, Serrated Maw, Wicked claws), Wizard Level 4, Battle Magic, 4x Focus Familiar
Supreme Sorceress [500pts]: Hand Weapon, Black Dragon (Full Plate Armour, Noxious breath N/A, Serrated Maw, Wicked claws), Wizard Level 4, Battle Magic, 4x Focus Familiar
## Core [501pts]
Dark Elf Crossbowmen [289pts]: Magic Standard, Veteran
• 18x Repeater Crossbowman [12pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Repeater Crossbow, Shield
• 1x Lordling [5pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [45pts]: Razor Standard
• 1x Musician [5pts]
Dark Riders [111pts]: Repeater Crossbow, Shield, Fire & Flee, Scouts
• 5x Dark Rider [16pts]: Dark Steed (Hand Weapon), Cavalry Spear, Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 1x Musician [6pts]
Dark Riders [101pts]: Repeater Crossbow, Fire & Flee
• 5x Dark Rider [16pts]: Dark Steed (Hand Weapon), Cavalry Spear, Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 1x Musician [6pts]
## Special [499pts]
Cold One Knights [411pts]:
• 9x Cold One Knight [35pts]: Cold One (Hand Weapon), Hand Weapon, Lance, Shield, Full Plate Armour
• 1x Dread Knight [57pts]: Potion of Toughness, Talisman Of Protection
• 1x Standard Bearer [32pts]: Banner Of Har Ganeth
• 1x Musician [7pts]
Harpies [88pts]:
• 8x Harpy [11pts]: Hand Weapon
This is kind of a neat double-dragon list. We have two identical 500 point Sorceress dragons. The dragons take 4x Focus Familiars as their only items and both take Battle Magic. I know this player is going to have games where you don’t roll Pillar of Fire on either dragon and just hate this use of points. But when it works it will probably feel great, I’d just rather have had some points for a Lore Familiar or Tome of Furion (know an extra spell).
The core here is loading up on Dark Riders with upgrades and this kinda illustrates the problem I referenced above. There are 24 Dark Riders which means 24 wounds with a 6+ save that are worth 500 points. Things like Ruby Ring of Ruin love to see this and will make back a ton of points off Dark Riders.
In special and rare we see a grab bag taking the
Chaos Dwarves (7 Lists)
Key Units:
12 Iron Daemons
9 Units of Infernal Guard
7 Level 4s (1 in each list)
6 Wyverns
6 Black Orc Mobs
4 Bale Taurus
3 Lammasu
1 Rare choice (Hobgoblin Wolf Riders)
1 List with a huge block of poison archers
Chaos Dwarfs are the Old World army I know the least about. I’ve not played them this edition and they have a pretty unusual army list with the split between orcs and dwarfs. We can see here there is general agreement that Iron Daemons are very good, you want mounted characters, and Infernal Guard are the preferred core. One list took a 500 point unit of Infernal Guard as their only core which I don’t think is the best way to build the list but is certainly interesting.
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SBOT2 Chaos Dwarf List - [2000pts]
# ++ Main Force ++ [2000pts]
## Characters [738pts]
Black Orc Warboss [361pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Shield, Wyvern (Heavy Armour, Venomous Tail, Wicked claws), Great Weapon, Trollhide Trousers, Potion of Toughness, Talisman Of Protection
Hobgoblin Khan [92pts]: Hand Weapon, Giant Wolf, Cavalry Spear, Shield, Light Armour, Throwing Weapon, Ruby Ring of Ruin
Sorcerer-Prophet [285pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, General, Wizard Level 4, Elementalism, Darkforged Weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Lore Familiar
## Core [507pts]
Black Orc Mobs [81pts]: Stubborn
• 4x Black Orc [14pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Great Weapon
• 1x Boss [20pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Great Weapon
Infernal Guard [213pts]: Great Weapon, Shield, Drilled
• 13x Infernal Guard [11pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour
• 1x Deathmask [6pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [6pts]
• 1x Musician [6pts]
Infernal Guard [213pts]: Great Weapon, Shield, Drilled
• 13x Infernal Guard [11pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour
• 1x Deathmask [6pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [6pts]
• 1x Musician [6pts]
## Special [755pts]
Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower [45pts]:
• 1x Bolt Thrower [45pts]: Bolt Thrower, Hand Weapon, Light Armour
Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower [45pts]:
• 1x Bolt Thrower [45pts]: Bolt Thrower, Hand Weapon, Light Armour
Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower [45pts]:
• 1x Bolt Thrower [45pts]: Bolt Thrower, Hand Weapon, Light Armour
Iron Daemon [310pts]: Steam Cannonade, Hellbound, 3x Chaos Dwarf Crew (Hand Weapon)
Iron Daemon [310pts]: Steam Cannonade, Hellbound, 3x Chaos Dwarf Crew (Hand Weapon)
So this list is somewhat typical of the Chaos Dwarf lists but they all have a few different things going on. This is a pretty standard Black Orc Warboss on Wyvern, it isn’t super killy compared to a dragon but is still going to be very hard to put down and at well under 400 points it’s a bargain. The Hobgoblin Khan I have a harder time figuring out what it’s meant to do. Ruby Ring of Ruin is great but at 92 points this doesn’t offer much else to the list. Then we have a level 4 of Elementalism and unusually for Chaos Dwarfs it’s on foot. I’m sure it will go in one of the two Infernal Guard units.
Along with those guard in core we have a very small unit of Stubborn Black Orcs and again I’m not 100% sure what these are going for. It can be an annoying unit if you can’t get through their Full Plate saves after your change, but it’s still a slow unit with only 5 wounds. The Infernal Guard in core are seen in almost all of these lists and they can do almost everything, but you do pay through the nose for them. This list has 31 infantry models in core and is paying over 500 points for them.
In special we have a trio of Hobgoblin Bolt Throwers, I don’t think these are very strong, but at only 45 points a model I like them. Getting one good shot can make the points back for one of these, and as war machines you don’t have to worry about low moral on otherwise cheap units.
Then rounding it out we have a pair of Iron Daemons, these are just very strong war machines capable of doing pretty much whatever you need, so it’s no surprise to see them as the most common unit in Chaos Dwarfs.
I think Chaos Dwarfs and an interesting army and while I don’t think they’ll be top tier in this version of the rules I think there is a lot of play in how you build them and I can lists becoming more and more refined over time.
Lizardmen (5 Lists)
I missed one of these lists in my initial overview, oops. And I’m pretty surprised to see so many Lizardmen lists because I consider the army to be in a very rough spot. I suspect the majority of these people are running lizardmen because they just think they’re neat. Which is good! Lizardmen are very neat. But I’ll be surprised if any of these Lizardman lists do particularly well.
Key Units:
28 Skink Skirmisher units (all javelins and shields)
8 Bastiladons (all Solar Engine)
7 Carnosaurs
4 Slann
4 Troglodon
Looking across these lists the Lizardmen are extremely heavy on skinks and pretty heavy on monsters and shooting. A lot of the army list is MIA here and we’ve actually ended up with one of the most focused armies. Lizards want to throw javelins and cast spells.
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# ++ Main Force ++ [1999pts]
## Characters [989pts]
Saurus Scar-Veteran [361pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Battle Standard Bearer (War Banner), Carnosaur (Heavy Armour, Slashing talons), Great Weapon, Shield, Glyph Necklace
Saurus Scar-Veteran [314pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, General, Carnosaur (Heavy Armour, Slashing talons), Great Weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Talisman Of Protection
Saurus Scar-Veteran [314pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Carnosaur (Heavy Armour, Slashing talons), Great Weapon, Armour of Silvered Steel, Enchanted Shield
## Core [660pts]
Jungle Swarms [120pts]:
• 3x Jungle Swarms [40pts]: Hand Weapon
Saurus Warriors [140pts]:
• 10x Saurus Warrior [14pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield
Skink Skirmishers [80pts]: Scouts
• 14x Skink [5pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Javelins and Shields
Skink Skirmishers [80pts]: Scouts
• 14x Skink [5pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Javelins and Shields
Skink Skirmishers [60pts]:
• 12x Skink [5pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Javelins and Shields
Skink Skirmishers [60pts]:
• 12x Skink [5pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Javelins and Shields
Skink Skirmishers [60pts]:
• 12x Skink [5pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Javelins and Shields
Skink Skirmishers [60pts]:
• 12x Skink [5pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Javelins and Shields
## Special [350pts]
Bastiladon [175pts]: Thunderous bludgeon, Solar Engine, 3x Skink Crew (Hand Weapon, Javelin)
Bastiladon [175pts]: Thunderous bludgeon, Solar Engine, 3x Skink Crew (Hand Weapon, Javelin)
I’m picking the one non-Slaan list for what should be obvious reasons, 989 points of Scar-Vets on Carnosaurs. The Carnosaur is a pretty solid mount in a faction without a lot of good units. It comes in much cheaper than a dragon so fitting in three isn’t a problem, and while this list has no Wizards I think that Lizardman wizards kinda suck. The Slann has a lot of rules that just don’t quite work in this edition, and your Skink casters are not level 4. So I think that unfortunately Lizardmen are a great army to skip a caster in. I also love the Scar-Vet that is the BSB with a War Banner. 3 static combat res on a mounted character is fantastic.
In core we have your required unit of Saurus Warriors, some Jungle Swarms, and 76 skinks with javelins. The idea with Skink Skirmishers is that they can march and shoot and all their shots have poison. You’ll often be hitting on 6s but those 6s will wound. Which is… fine? Some lists will be very annoyed by six units of shooting skirmishers. But most can shrug this off. While they can march and shoot they only have 12” range, and at T2 they die to a stiff breeze. All that said, this is probably the best thing you can be doing with Lizardmen core, it’s just a very underwhelming slot.
Rounding out the list there are two Bastiladons in special with Solar Engines. This is a monster with a 24” bound magic missile that deals 3D3 S5 AP-2 hits. it’s a pretty good unit and a great magic missile so I’m not surprised to see a lot in the Lizardmen armies. It does have two big weaknesses, first it needs to roll a 7 to get the bound spell off so you’ll miss that casting roll pretty often. Secondly as a Power Level 2 bound spell if your opponent’s level 4 gets within 24” of this you’re probably done casting.
Skaven (3 Lists)
I’ll keep this pretty brief. Skaven are not a good army. Three players are trying to make them work which I respect, but I also don’t think they will in fact make it work. But let’s look at the lists. We’ve got 3 level 4s, one per list. We also have 3 level 2s which at one per list is the highest rate in the event.
All three lists take the 2 required units of Clantrats and keep them close to minimum size. 120 Giant Rats certainly stand out, at 3 points per model they are extremely cheap and do have a number of solid special rules, but I still expect to see this break and run quite quickly.
Each list takes some Gutter Runners but none of them take a Gutter Runner deathstar, these are all pretty small units.
Despite being regarded as one of the Skven’s more okay units we only see one Hell Pit Abomination.
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# ++ Main Force ++ [2000pts]
## Characters [975pts]
Grey Seer [285pts]: D3 Warpstone Tokens, Hand Weapon, General, Wizard Level 4, Dark Magic, Lore Familiar, Shadow Magnet
Plague Priest [296pts]: Hand Weapon, Plague Furnace (3x Plague Monk Crew), Hand Weapon (Billowing Death N/A), Wizard Level 1, Battle Magic, Plague censer, Talisman Of Protection
Plague Priest [301pts]: Hand Weapon, Plague Furnace (3x Plague Monk Crew), Hand Weapon (Billowing Death N/A), Wizard Level 1, Battle Magic, Plague censer, Warpstone Amulet
Skaven Chieftain [93pts]: Hand Weapon, Halberd, Light Armour, Battle Standard Bearer, Cautious Shield
## Core [669pts]
Clanrats [157pts]:
• 20x Clanrat [4pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 1x Weapon Team [65pts]:
• 1x Weapon Team Crew [65pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Ratling Gun
• 1x Clawleader [7pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [5pts]
Clanrats [157pts]:
• 20x Clanrat [4pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 1x Weapon Team [65pts]:
• 1x Weapon Team Crew [65pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Ratling Gun
• 1x Clawleader [7pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [5pts]
Stormvermin [355pts]:
• 20x Stormvermin [11pts]: Halberd, Heavy Armour, Shield
• 1x Weapon Team [65pts]:
• 1x Weapon Team Crew [65pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Ratling Gun
• 1x Fangleader [8pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [56pts]: Grand Banner Of Superiority
• 1x Musician [6pts]
## Special [356pts]
Gutter Runners [122pts]: Throwing Weapon, Ambushers, Poisoned Attacks
• 5x Gutter Runner [14pts]: Two Hand Weapon
• 1x Assassin [32pts]: Death Globe
Gutter Runners [117pts]: Throwing Weapon, Poisoned Attacks
• 5x Gutter Runner [14pts]: Two Hand Weapon
• 1x Assassin [32pts]: Death Globe
Gutter Runners [117pts]: Throwing Weapon, Poisoned Attacks
• 5x Gutter Runner [14pts]: Two Hand Weapon
• 1x Assassin [32pts]: Death Globe
I picked this list for the simple fact it has double Plague Furnace. These are both set up to tank, and they can do that pretty well at T6, 7W, one with a 5++ ward and another with a 4++ against non-magical attacks. I don’t think that accomplishes much, but hey, if you’re Skaven just not dying is well above curve.
We’ve got 3 Ratling Guns attached to the core infantry units. they do add a lot of firepower but aren’t cheap. In large part thanks to the Stormvermin this lists clocks in at 669 points of core. As nice as that is, I’d rather see more points elsewhere.
Special is a trio of Gutter Runner units each taking a Death Globe on their champion. This is a single use magic weapon that puts a 3” template over any model and if it hits models under the template take an initiative test or suffer a wound. This is very cute, and I hope at some point this list gets to blow up a character with these, however as a shooting attack and template I believe Look Out Sir! still works.
Ogres (1 List)
Ogres are not the weakest legacy army, but they’re still in a pretty rough place. A lack of fly and swiftstride in an edition dominated by them doesn’t bode well And their core options have some good options but are generally speaking not great. We’ve only got one so let’s jump to it.
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++ Main Force ++ [2000pts]
Characters [830pts]
Slaughtermaster [365pts]: Hand Weapon, Longstrider, Wizard Level 4, Elementalism, Bloodcleaver, Grut’s Sickle, Daemon-Slayer Scars
Tyrant [465pts]: Hand Weapon, General, Giantbreaker, Thundertusk (Chill breath, Great tusks, Heavy Armour), Light Armour, Biting Blade, Gut Maw, Spangleshard
Core [510pts]
Gnoblar Fighters [40pts]:
• 20x Gnoblar Fighter [2pts]: Hand Weapon, Throwing Weapon
Ironguts [324pts]:
• 7x Irongut [39pts]: Great Weapon, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour
• 1x Gutlord [7pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [37pts]: Look-out Gnoblar, War Banner
• 1x Musician [7pts]
Ogre Bulls [146pts]: Ironfist
• 4x Ogre [31pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 1x Musician [6pts]
Special [660pts]
Mournfang Cavalry [335pts]: Ironfist, Magic Standard
• 4x Ogre [67pts]: Mournfang (Weapon - Monstrous tusks), Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour
• 1x Crusher [7pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [37pts]: Cannibal Totem
• 1x Musician [7pts]
Mournfang Cavalry [325pts]: Great Weapon, Magic Standard
• 4x Ogre [67pts]: Mournfang (Weapon - Monstrous tusks), Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour
• 1x Crusher [7pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [27pts]: Bull Standard
• 1x Musician [7pts]
For characters we have a levle 4 and a Tyrant on a Thundertusk. I’ve seen more people using Stonehorns but I see the appeal of Thundertrusks, they have a lot of rules and with a Tyrant on there it’s still very durable.
In core we start to see some of the problems for Ogres. The typical expensive unit of Ironguts is seen. We also have a 40 point unit of 20 Gnoblars and I like to see this. It’s a cheap unit that can take up a lot of space and won’t panic the rest of your army, having this will give you more flexibility. It is taking the space that might be used for Sabertusks which are generally more popular and much more maneuverable. The big unit of Ironguts is pretty standard, offering a powerful combat unit but it will be hard to take advantage of them. Last in core is a unit of 4 bulls, Ogres have to take a unit of bulls and it’s often only 3. I’m not sure if the extra body is to put the Slaughtermaster in with them.
In special things look up a good bit with two units of 4 Mournfang Cavalry. These are hard hitting durable units with more speed than the rest of the army. They’re one of the best things in Ogre Kingdoms but are very points dense, this is 660 points in special which is a ton in an edition dominated by the character slot.
Wrap-Up
This is the last of my metagame reviews, I’ll be traveling for most of November so I don’t think I’ll keep up with the ongoing metagame, but I do plan to have more SBOT coverage later in the month. Overall I think the metagame looks pretty solid. Legacy armies in particular have strong representation with some lists that are not very popular in live events showing decent numbers.
The metagame of SBOT will never reflect the live metagame for several reasons but I really like that it gives an international look at the metagame. I think it does point to a lot of current balance problems in the Old World and it’ll be interesting to see which lists trickle to the top.
I’ll also note now that I made some updates to SBOT 2 Metagame Part 1 - Overview if you want to check them out.
