‘Warhammer: The Old World – The Unbeatable List – Bay Area Open 2025 Edition
Take a look at the recent Bay Area Open winning list for Warhammer: The Old World, and why it works.
This last weekend saw the 33 person Bay Area Open take place. BAO is one of the longest running major events in the US, and this year they ran a major TOW two-day event. This event is one of the growing number of large Warhammer: The Old World event we’ve seen and hopes to grow overtime. With 33 players, it’s not the largest event we’ve seen but it is a good sized event for TOW.
When the dust had settled on five epic rounds of The Old World, only one list remained undefeated. Andy Rodgers playing High Elves managed to go 5-0 with an undefeated list. Intrestingly the next two top players, Ivan Sterliagov and Eric Hung also ran High Elves, allowing them to sweep the top three spots. With that said, lets dig into Andy’s list.
Andy Rodgers’ Winning High Elves List
375 – Archmage
-Sea Guard
-Lothern Skycutter
-Wizard Level 4
-Illusion
-Warbow
-Dragon Slaying Sword
-Lore Familiar
-Seed of Rebirth
268 – Archmage
-Blood of Caledor
-Barded Elven Steed
-Wizard Level 4
-High Magic
-Full Plate Armour
-Spelleater Axe
-Silvery Wand
90 – Handmaiden of the Everqueen
-Horn of Isha
-General
-Light Armour
267 – Noble
-Lance,
-Full Plate Armour
-Shield
-Pure of Heart
-Battle Standard Bearer
-Griffon
-Dragon Helm
-Seed of Rebirth
223 – 8 Silver Helms
-Shield
-High Helm
-Ring of Fury
309 – 17 Sisters of Avelorn
-High Sister
-Ruby Ring of Ruin
-Stubborn
330 – 7 Dragon Princes
– Drakemaster
-The Loremaster’s Cloak
-Standard Bearer
-Lion Standard
-Musician
75 – Tiranoc Chariot
60 – Great Eagles
How The Unbeatable List Works
Andy’s list on face value appears fairly simple, with the pair of Lvl 4s doing a lot of the heavy lifting. You’ve clearly got one big block of Dragon Princes that one of the lvl 4s rides in. This block is designed to really be as tank-y as possible. They’ve got MR 2 and the Lvl 4 to try and stop magic hitting them… and a 4+ ward vs magic missiles.
Their own Lvl 4 can also try and make them ethereal and maybe give them a ward. All that combined can make them immune to a lot of the attacks in the game and they hit really hard. It’s a hard hitting unit, and we’ve seen some of these blocks do work before. They also auto pass fear and terror, removing that threat.
Other than that we’ve got a fairly standard block of Sisters (and ruby ring) with a Handmaiden to fill out core and do some shooting. Another block of Silver Helms to both be there and be core. Then two flying characters, the Lvl 4 on the sky cutter to do some ranged threat and throw spells and the BSB on Griffin to jump in and hit things.
Rounding this off is a chariot and eagle for annoyance. Basically this list is going to soften targets up with a turn or two of shooting and magic and then use a couple fast hard hitting units to finish things off.
Looking At The Characters In Detail
Like a lot of list this one relies heavily on the characters, with about half it’s points spent there. And they are putting in some work. Two lvl 4s is no joke and this list throws a lot of spells. The Skycutter Archmage can do some damage and be a ranged annoyed, but they are really there to deal with big things. They can use crystal column and miasmic mirage to shut down big scary units and monsters.
Meanwhile Doppleganger and the Dragon Slaying sword make them a real threat to just kill monsters. Regen and the extra wounds of the Skycutter, as well as the option to run with Glittering Robes gives them some survivablity.
The 2nd lvl 4 goes in the unit and has a pretty clear role. They can buff their own unit and maybe throw out a little damage. The Handmaiden is mostly there to get Sisters as core and aid their shooting a bit. The BSB on griffon is a fast supporting dude with some static combat res. With the seed of rebirth he’s pretty tank-y. Overall the characters really compliment the list without being super tricky.
Thoughts On the List
Overall this is an interesting list, but not one I would have picked to go 5-0 at a large event. It’s got some good synergy and seems to have been designed with a plan in mind, which is good. However it seems to have some big weaknesses. I’m sure Andy must have run it really well ending up 5-0, but I do think his match ups likely helped out a bit.
Andy didn’t face any Brettonian lists with the Falcon Horn, which I think could have been a real issue as it will basically take the Lvl 4 on Skycutter out of the game, and also hurt the Griffin and Eagle a lot. He also didn’t face any lists with heavy warmachine, especially cannon shooting, or really much long range shooting.
Both the Archmage and Griffin could be vulnerable to that. But that could mean that he just did a very job building fot the BAO meta which wasn’t running some of those threats. He also squeezed out narrow victories, by battle points it looks like he actually would have placed in a 4-way tie for 4th place.
Overall Andy deserves big kudos for going 5-0 at a major event and congrats to him! No matter what he faced and what his points were, he was the only one to go undefeated. And I think it’s great for TOW to see lists that are surprising and aren’t just the exact same meta build winning. While his list has elements we’ve seen before it is a bit different and has some risks and good on him for that.
Congrats Andy and everyone who placed at BAO – BRAVO!
Let us know what you think of Andy’s list, down in the comment!
