Capital Punishment 2

21 Sep 2025

Yesterday I took my all-Spiderfang Gloomspite Gitz list down to Leith for my first ever non-Spearhead Age of Sigmar tournament, a one-dayer called Capital Punishment 2. Here’s how it went.

The first Capital Punishment ran at roughly the same date last year. By the time I found out it was happening it was far too late to sign up, so I eagerly awaited its sequel. I hope there will be another next year, because having at least one annual Age of Sigmar event, even just a single-day one, in my city will only increase my enthusiasm for the game.

The List

I brought the best my goblinoid list-building could provide: oops, all spiders! This list has been a dream of mine for years. It’s been rewarding to get it onto tables after many years of collecting and hobbying. It meets my good time criteria: it’s just models I like, it’s fun to play, and it’s a small number of warscrolls and things to remember.

Da Web Surfaz 1950/2000 pts

Gloomspite Horde

General’s Handbook 2025-26

Drops: 3

Spell Lore - Lore of the Clammy Dank

Manifestation Lore - Dank Manifestations

Battle Tactic Cards: Restless Energy, Intercept and Recover

General’s Regiment

Webspinner Shaman on Arachnarok Spider (270)

General

The Clammy Cowl

Skitterstrand Arachnarok (190)

Skitterstrand Arachnarok (190)

Spider Riders (220)

Reinforced

Spider Riders (220)

Reinforced

Regiment 1

Webspinner Shaman (100)

The Clammy Hand

Arachnarok Spider with Spiderfang Warparty (220)

Spider Riders (220)

Reinforced

Regiment 2

Webspinner Shaman (100)

Spider Riders (220)

Reinforced

Faction Terrain: Bad Moon Loonshrine

Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App App: 1.19.0 | Data: 342

Despite winning both my practice games with it (both against Idoneth Deepkin) I was under no illusions about how competitive the list is. It may have some good match-ups, and I might be able to pilot it well sometimes, but ultimately it is a lot of squishy bugs that need to get into combat and roll lots of 5+ crits just to have a chance to survive, let alone win.

My goal for the day, however, was not to win; it was to make it through all three games without my brain exploding.

Game 1

Just my luck, I matched straight into the sweatiest list at the tournament: Cities of Sigmar (Veteran Canoneers) with 3 Greatcannon, 3 Command Corps and Zenestra – but its owner, Craig, realising it was my first ever tournament game, was very sporting and played in such a way as to make it a less one-sided battle than it probably should have been by offering advice and choosing not to put the boot in quite as much as he could have done. As a result, I had a pretty good time even as his cannons point-and-clicked my army away, and we finished 59-61 to him. Thanks Craig!

Game 2

On the same table, but there was much less game this time. I saw the Vanguard-Palladors coming, panicked, and misplayed into them. I lost 49-73. I’m not sure by how much, but I definitely could have done better.

I need practice against Stormcast. In theory my mortal-wound-spamming army should have some play against them, but they can get 5+ wards, can teleport about, have some highly mobile units, and plenty of damage output. None of which are things spiders like to deal with.

Game 3

I’d never faced Blades of Khorne before. This list consisted of a lot of infantry and a Bloodthirster. It seemed like it was going to be an uphill slog; it’s very hard for my army to do enough damage to chew through so much health.

Nonetheless, I was pleased to discover my goblins’ shooting could wittle down the Bloodreavers, Bloodletters and Flesh Hounds, and my spiders made a brave effort at chewing through them in combat. But my howdah-bearing Arachnarok whiffed lots of attacks and let me down and the other big spiders struggled to become relevant too. When my Webspinner on Arachnarok wasn’t failing his casts he was having them unbound by the enemy slaughterpriest.

Once the Bloodthirster got stuck in horrible things started happening, but one of my on-foot Webspinners managed to deal 8 mortal wounds to him before being splatted, and later I was able to use the scenario’s underdog ability to trap him on an objective.

Things became miserable once my opponent unlocked a Blood Tithe ability that disabled weapon abilities on charging units, which is like my army’s whole thing.

We finished with 57 points to me and 63 to him. I’m not sure how it became so close, but I guess I did manage to score a few battle tactics.

Conclusion

At the awards ceremony, I was chosen as Best Painted by the painting judge! My prize was Anasta Malkorian, a limited edition vampire lord from a few years ago. I look forward to painting her up some day.

I had a good time. Everyone was very welcoming and pleasant to play Warhammer with. Big thanks to the organizers and other contributors for making it all happen.

I can see myself doing more Age of Sigmar tournaments in the future, but first I need to figure out what I’m doing with my Spiderfang spidergang. Options are: double down and keep trying with what I’ve got (perhaps I could try splitting up one or two of the Spider Rider units, for starters?), water them down by including other Gitz units (a couple big blocks of Stabbas worked quite well in a previous game; the army needs anvils) or drop ‘em entirely and play something else (Nighthaunt? Cities? …Stormcast?).

Or I could just hope that GW buff spiders please?