Hey folks!
The third annual Golden Troll Warcry Tournament in Montreal is taking place right around the corner, and we just got our hands on the submitted and finalized tournament warband lists!
We’ll share them below shortly, but just a few quick details about the rules for lists this time around:
- All lists had to follow normal rules (max 1000 pts, max 3 units with leader icon, no more than 15 units, etc.).
- Divine Blessings are allowed and had to be chosen at time of list submission.
- The same goes for Battle Traits – they are allowed and must be chosen by time of submission.
- Deployments must be chosen by time of submission.
- Upon submission, lists are considered final and locked in for the tournament.
So overall pretty standard stuff for a tournament and even casual play.
Originally, there were 10 people signed up to play, but two have since dropped out leaving the total of lists to 8 (2 more than last year, and if I recall the same number of people as in 2024.
Now, let’s get to the lists!
Hedonites of Slaanesh Tournament List
AKA “Lord Hubris and the Many Little Disappointments”
First up is the list I submitted. It’s a 9 unit list centered around 3 heavy hitter “big bois” and a lot of disappointing but quick chaff.
If you recall, last year I also played Hedonites of Slaanesh, and landed third place. I liked my list and feel it was a bit of luck of the draw that saw me heavily outnumbered on objective matches.
This time around I wanted to go for more bodies, but also kind of avoid the old “middle” trap. While the Hedonites do have tons of fun units in the 100-200 point range, I did feel that I play that almost every time, so I needed a change.
I knew I wanted to bring my Lord of Hubris back as he was a fun wild card last year (even if he makes me play more recklessly). His main issue was survivability after using his “You first, I insist” double so my hope is with 5 toughness that his likelihood of being of shot has gone done significantly.
I also brought back the Fomoroid Crusher from my first tournament win in 2024. His point cost has gone up and I wasn’t able to purchase an extra attack for him this time because I chose the extra body of chaff, so I hope to use him for his near invulnerability and scary presence if nothing else.
The new face is Vexmore. Yes, that Vexmore we all love and hate with tons of potential for shenanigans. He’s lovely at his base points, and seemed the obvious choice for my last 40 points to double his attack profile from a whole 1 to 2.
Unlucky for me, I haven’t had the chance to play him yet – I only spotted him in stores like a week before the tourney so quickly painted and prepped him. Here’s hoping he scares people!
Lastly, all my chaff. The homonculus is one of those units I actually kinda hate. He’s 5 points too pricey (all because of his archer buff) and really just exists to die or crowd a point.
The best chaff in the game has to serve a point or a role (crit farming or tanks are two of their best uses) and I guess these dudes have speed, but that’s about it.
Also, the model itself is basically impossible to get, so I had to come up with a bunch of proxies and get those vetted beforehand.
I honestly don’t know if this is the right move to have a chance at winning (especially after we look at the other warbands), but it’s the one I chose so I’m gonna stick with it! Either way, it should be fun and different list than I am used to playing.
Maggotkin of Nurgle Daemons Tournament List
Next up is a Maggotkin list that makes good use of cheap Plaguebearer chaff, the many attacks of Nurglings (now with a bonus crit damage) and the support of the Sloppity Bilepiper.
I’m pretty sure I faced this same warband in my first tournament 2 years (albeit, with more Plaguebearers since the chaff costed like 10 points less back then).
It’s a slow moving, high health, and high damage warband.
From experience, the Beast of Nurgle is a wildcard too – either a chaff destroyer or a big boi that locks up points (likely the case with the added toughness here rather than strength).
Nighhaunt Warcry Tournament List
Here’s a curious list. I haven’t seen Nighthaunt at any tournaments myself (I don’t think they are super popular – but that’s just anecdotal) and the few times I played them in casual, they got trounced (high speed + low health often means you rush up to die real quick).
While the list is relatively small at 8 bodies, the Dreadscythe Harridans have the right buff to make their many attacks more ferocious. Though, with okay toughness and bad health, they might still suffer from the curse of rushing to their own demise.
Ossiarch Bonereapers Warcry Tournament List
This is one of the lists that made me go holy crap, I don’t want to fight them!
I’ve fought the Ossiarch Bonereapers before in a tournament setting (such as facing off against them for the tie breaker two years ago) and they are mean.
Their chaff is slow but tough (with a brutal crit damage of 5) and the Necropolis Stalkers are real bastards. Those dudes are fast, hard to kill, and deal tons of damage.
Seeing three of them in a list made my stomach churn a little as they are gonna for sure eat up my chaff and also give even my big bois a run for their money when it comes to survival.
Definitely one of the lists to watch out for.
Royal Beastflayers Warcry Tournament List
Next up is the warband Quest and Cartridge co-founder Scott is bringing to the party.
It’s a pretty optimized Royal Beastflayers list that revolves around the Royal Flaymaster’s ability to blast Pack Tactics on anyone surrounded by the Ghoul Trackers (of which there is no shortage and who serve the purpose of increasing the ability damage).
It’s a good list that I’ve fought before casually (and lost – also with a Hedonites of Slaanesh warband no less). With some good triples, they can tear into the bigger threats and still have enough bodies to crowd points and objectives.
In a straight up slugfest, they might fall behind with no heaver hitters, the closet thing being the okay profiles of the Offal Hounds and Beastflayer Barons.
Seraphon Warcry Tournament List
The next list that made me really go oh crap is this one.
While they only have 7 bodies, three of them are truly brutal.
The Kroxigor Warspawned are models I haven’t seen in person before, but have pretty much cowered in awe at their stats since I first saw them.
They’re incredibly tough and tanky, have a really mean swing, are not slow, and have access to one of the best triples in the game (Tearing Bite which can give them up to 6 bonus damage a hit for the rest of the activation!). Plus their Warband trait almost always means they will have better triples kicking around.
I’m honestly expecting those three dudes to wreck house. Even if the player rolls lots of low doubles and triples, they’re still utter chaff and mid range destroyers with no real weakness.
All the while the rest of the warband can focus on being quick and sneaky as they run off to secure objectives while peppering people with annoying little blow darts from Tok, Huachi, and Totapatl.
Stormcast Eternals Thunderstrike Chamber Tournament List
Next we have a list that I am pretty excited about and would love to battle just to see them in action.
Knight-Judicator is a bit of a meme piece with his long range, one shot, and crazy damage, and yet I’ve always fantasized about seeing this piece in action.
There are certainly ways to make him viable and the inclusion of the Vigilor who can use Guiding Light to effectively tag a target and give our hero more attacks is right on track.
The only question is whether this will be more for show than anything else. With so few attacks, missing even a single die is a big whiff (and off the bat he has fewer attack dice than my divinely blessed Vexmore with the same damage output.
It’s a risky move and I feel bringing two Praetors is equally risky as these guys are arguably just worse Vindictors (and still more expensive than giving the Vindictors a strength buff each.
We’ll see. Either way, I want to share in the glory of just seeing these guys on the battlefield.
Wildercorps Hunters Warcry Tournament List
And this brings us to our final list – a Wildercorps Hunters warband.
When these models first came out, I wasn’t too impressed by their stats and abilities but I don’t think I really understood what I was seeing. They weren’t what I was expecting, that’s for sure, and I wrote them off, but hearing their tournament win rates kinda forced me to re-evaluate them.
On the whole, there’s no denying, this is a good warband and a good list. Adding a bonus strength to the Arbalester is a stroke of terrifying genius and I can see him hanging out next to Calthia Xandire all match and just raining death on everything. Together they will erase mid-tiers and below and even (if the dice gods are with them) likely mess up even the biggest threats out there.
Similar to the Royal Beastflayers above, the Wildercorp Warden can also use his pup chaff to nuke people from afar with his triple Kill! that does three times the number of dogs in damage to a poor soul (cutting through even the toughest armour).
Yeah these guys are gonna be a definite contender too.
If you’re curious about past lists from the Golden Troll Tournament:
- The 2024 Warband List
- Sorry, must have misplaced them for 2025 (but here’s a recap)
