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The Black Sunz - Ironjawz - Update 28/02 - PICS! Whole new army painted!!


Chris Tomlin

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I'll post a proper reply next week, it's too late, I'm too drunk and have to get up to run a tournament very soon!

But before I report on my game vs the Seraphon I thought you might like to see a pic of Megaboss Chris in action ;)

For spoilers, check my Twitter feed - @the_black_sun 

Edited by Chris Tomlin
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On ‎06‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 2:59 AM, Dez said:

I need one!!!

It's a one of a kind! Handmade by Ryan Golke previously of Pointhammered fame. When I went over to the States for Waaagh!paca in 2014 I was lucky enough to win Best Painted Army (with my Dark Elves) and this bit of kit was my prize. Cost loads to ship back mind! Well worth it, especially now I'm playing Ironjawz!

Ok so now that my tiring weekend is out the way (the event I ran went really well by all accounts) I can get to giving a brief report of my game from Friday night. As always, you can see more on my Twitter feed, @the_black_sun, including pics - I'd say I'll post them up here, but going from previous reports that doesn't seem to happen!! :S 

Da Black Sunz - Ironjawz 2,000 points (Destruction Allegiance in game)

  • Ardnob (Black Orc Big Boss - General, Command Trait: Ravager)
  • Megaboss on Maw-krusha (Artefact: Meteoric Hammerblade)
  • Megaboss Krunk (Artefact: Battle Brew)
  • Warchanter
  • Ironfist
  • 10 Brutes (Jagged Hackas)
  • 5 Brutes (Choppas)
  • 5 Brutes (Choppas)
  • 10 Ardboyz (9 Big Choppas, 1 shield)
  • 3 Gore-gruntas (Choppas)

TOTAL; 1,980 points

As you'll see I tried out the Ardnob for the first time. I've been saying I'll drop the Weirdnob for sometime now so figured it was time I actually tried it. Still considering a second Warchanter instead, but I at least wanted to try this guy out. I thought if I made him General I may get to use his command ability for the bigger picture. I gave him the Rend -2 D3 Damage weapon.

Game 5 - vs @Andy Talbot (Order - pure Seraphon)

Andy's list was (roughly), Slann, Skink Priest, Eternity Warden, 15 Saurus Guard, 2 Bastiladons, 2x 5 Chameleon Skinks, 2x 3 Kroxigor and maybe something else, but I think that's about right. His list was 2,000 points, meaning I'd get a roll on the Triumph table for this first time...at least in theory. Whilst I mentioned it before the game, when it came around it, I completely forgot. Spesh!!

In this game we were playing Border War (second game in a row!) and as I out deployed Andy I opted to go first, as I considered it a mistake not to do so vs Gary in the previous game. What was interesting here is that during my deployment, I didn't actually look at Andy's drops once. I knew my preferred method to deploy in this battleplan to go after the objectives and in doing so I'd say that Andy ended up reacting more to me and not vice versa, which is decent.

I deployed my large Brute unit, the Ardboyz and the Cabbage next to some Mystical terrain. I know good players will often say to avoid it as the risk outweighs the rewards...but nah, rolling a 2+ is easy and getting rerolls to wounds is #legit! So yeh, turn 1 the Cabbage failed. Obviously. I moved everything up, with 5 Brutes and the Gruntas taking the left objective, the other 5 Brutes taking the right one. The 10 Brutes moved onto the hill in the middle of the table (we play hills as cover) supported by all 3 Leaders on foot, whilst the Ardboyz secured the ojective on my side of the table, this gave me the 5-0 headstart I was looking for.

Andy moved up and used his Lascannons (sorry, Bastiladons) to target my unit of 5 Brutes, to try and draw some early Battleshock casualties. Luckily his rolling wasn't great, but still some Brutes went down. He only managed to score 1 Victory Point in the first turn, but got the double turn and pushed forward more aggressively, with the Saurus Guard and Eternity Warden (at least I think it's this guy he had - bounces wounds from Slann) engages one smaller unit of Brutes and the Gruntas on my left. The 2 Basti's and both units of Krox went for the big unit of Brutes. It was pretty messy as by the end of his T2, 12 of my 20 Brutes were dead. The Saurus Guard had taken control of the objective on my left after demolishing the Brutes (though they had killed the Eternity Warden beforehand, as he was a softer target and I was able to get the Boss and Gore-Choppa on him). It was now 5-4 to me.

In my T2, the Cabbage (again) and the Ardboyz failed Mystical terrain. It was a bit annoying, but not as bad as it sounds. Not much really happened in my turn though, the Gore-gruntas did no damage to the Saurus Guard (shock) and lost one in return. Megaboss Krunk and the Ardnob had got stuck into the big ruck on the hill, and managed to delete a unit of Krox. Models wise, I was losing the war of attrition.

In T3 (I can't remember who went first), Andy suggested that I do Rampaging Destroyers before rolling for Mystical Terrain so I could get away. I declined, saying I couldn't possibly rolled a 3rd successive 1 for the Cabbage. I know what you're thinking, but thankfully I was right! ;) so the Cabbage was now juiced up and ready to #cabbagestomp some scalies! The benefit to sitting in my deployment phase for 2 turns was that he'd attracted no attention and now the fight was right in front of him. He jumped forward and screamed at a Bastiladon (Andy was surprised to learn he had a D6 damage shooting attack that hits on 2+!), needless to say after 2 turns of doing nothing he was spoiling for a fight and promptly took 6 wounds off the dinosaur before smashing it apart with his Destructive Bulk! Boom.

After looking like I was going to be taken off after Andy's T2, it had all started to come good. I had lost the unit of 10 Brutes (never a good sign) and thanks to the Saurus Guard's -1 Bravery banner, the last Grunta squealed and fled the table.

Basically the Ardboyz and the Brutes on the right valiantly defended their objectives whilst my 4 Leaders (even the Warchanter) got stuck in and smashed up everything. I got no use out of the Ardnobs command ability, but he was very strong in combat. The Rend -2 was very usefull vs the Saurus Guard.

We called it on T5 after I won priority and was 22-11 up, making it impossible for Andy to make a late comeback.

Result - Major Victory

Another great game and really really swingy. I genuinely thought it was all over T2.

I may add some further thoughts later as I know that is briefer, less detailed than usual.

Thanks for reading!

 

Edited by Chris Tomlin
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Love it Chris your army is almost identical to my army, the only difference is I have 30 ardboyz and only 10 brutes. I am also now pretty sure that this build (cabbage, mega boss, chanter, nob & 6 pick ironfist) is one of the "competitive"builds for Ironjawz. With the rise of bonesplittas, beastclaw and sylvaneth in abundance ironjawz are a pretty solid counter to some of those army's builds so who knows what the future brings. 

In regards to the ardnob if a TO allows compendium with no restrictions then that's great if they say no then it's an easy swipe out for a warchanter, but if allowed in I do like his reliable hit and damage when close to another character. In all honesty I wish they would "re-brand" the grimgor model as a Ardnob (or whatever name they desire) to act a similar role for us that the Exhalted Deathbringer does for khorne, one because we need a "Lieutenant type character" and 2 Grimgor is one of the very best Orruk models seems a shame to let it fall by the wayside.

i reckon @Andy Talbot has some freakish mojo when it comes to mystical terrain I'm still having nightmares about our call to war game where my entire army literally failed first turn and then a lot of it for the next 2 turns after that, though I'm still in your camp of take the chance as the reroll wounds is a massive buff that we cannot achieve outside of going into wider destruction, though the rumour mill seems to suggest a new allegiance book soon and will be interesting to see what the ironjawz get for there exclusives :-)

Edited by Sangfroid
Who the **** is Gringor
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58 minutes ago, Sangfroid said:

Love it Chris your army is almost identical to my army, the only difference is I have 30 ardboyz and only 10 brutes. I am also now pretty sure that this build (cabbage, mega boss, chanter, nob & 6 pick ironfist) is one of the "competitive"builds for Ironjawz. With the rise of bonesplittas, beastclaw and sylvaneth in abundance ironjawz are a pretty solid counter to some of those army's builds so who knows what the future brings. 

Hey Kieran,

Thanks for the reply, I was beginning to think no one cared about Da Black Sunz adventures anymore!! :P 

Yeh unfortunately I think it will take people having to make a conscious effort to go off piste with Ironjawz if we are to see anything really different. We are pretty limited in builds which is, I fear, going to result in most lists looking the same without even necessarily looking at another players build. I am interested to see how some of us get on at events over the next couple of months with these sort of armies.

I think 2x 10 Brutes and 2x 10 Ardboyz would probably be what I would consider optimum at the moment. But, I do just love the Gore-grunta models and the units of 5 Brutes have some utility for sure. If I stick with pure Ironjawz much longer I will have to suck it up and paint more Ardboyz, no two ways about it.

58 minutes ago, Sangfroid said:

In regards to the ardnob if a TO allows compendium with no restrictions then that's great if they say no then it's an easy swipe out for a warchanter, but if allowed in I do like his reliable hit and damage when close to another character. In all honesty I wish they would "re-brand" the grimgor model as a Ardnob (or whatever name they desire) to act a similar role for us that the Exhalted Deathbringer does for khorne, one because we need a "Lieutenant type character" and 2 Grimgor is one of the very best Orruk models seems a shame to let it fall by the wayside.

Agree 100% he is needed in the list. After just one game I already think that (as I believe you advised elsewhere) that having him as your General isn't necessary. Whilst it was his Command Ability that first got me excited, it's actually having such a great damage output on a small footprint that's where he really shines. In that game vs @Andy Talbot, if my Megaboss was General, he could've used that Waaaagh Command Ability to great effect when the Leaders were all tanking it on the hill.

59 minutes ago, Sangfroid said:

i reckon @Andy Talbot has some freakish mojo when it comes to mystical terrain I'm still having nightmares about our call to war game where my entire army literally failed first turn and then a lot of it for the next 2 turns after that, though I'm still in your camp of take the chance as the reroll wounds is a massive buff that we cannot achieve outside of going into wider destruction, though the rumour mill seems to suggest a new allegiance book soon and will be interesting to see what the ironjawz get for there exclusives :-)

Meh, I'll be sticking with the mindset of going for the Mystical terrain!! I acknowledge its not "good" play, but it's entertaining and the buff is soooo good.

Be interesting to see what Ironjawz get. It will need to be very good to warrant a move away from the Destruction ones, which fit our army so well.

Chris

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Great write up Chris, after having played against two ironjaw/destruction armies recently one at ROS and one at the club I'm actually starting to get the bug for them! The extra Movement ability makes the army really aggressive forcing your opponent to react to you. But also responsive allowing you to back track to protec a weak spot in your battle line. :)

ironjaw brutes seem really good to me, perhaps it's the rend on them. I know it makes me want to activate my Paladins first if fighting them.

do you think units of 10 are viable? With a cheeky mystic shield and dammed terrain buff I think they would eat quite a lot of units.

 

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2 hours ago, Lez said:

Great write up Chris, after having played against two ironjaw/destruction armies recently one at ROS and one at the club I'm actually starting to get the bug for them! The extra Movement ability makes the army really aggressive forcing your opponent to react to you. But also responsive allowing you to back track to protec a weak spot in your battle line. :)

ironjaw brutes seem really good to me, perhaps it's the rend on them. I know it makes me want to activate my Paladins first if fighting them.

do you think units of 10 are viable? With a cheeky mystic shield and dammed terrain buff I think they would eat quite a lot of units.

 

Cheer Les (or Lez if you're trying to be cool! haha ;)),

Yeah you pick up on an important point which I think many people miss out on. Having extra movement doesn't just mean pushing everything forward the maximum distance each turn. It is also a huge reactionary/responsive buff as it allows you to reposition to support other units/areas or even retreat (+ move) onto objectives an the such. Nothing worse than movement 4" infantry that finally gets stuck in and then just, well, stuck! Which is what we were before General's Handbook!

I see a lot of talk about Ironjawz being awesome. They are simply not unless you are just playing flat out kill scenarios (which is dull). However they are now a feasible army thanks to the General's Handbook for sure as they can compete in an objective based game.

Brutes are great. They are. You look at their stats, they look scary. You get hit by them, they smash you up (especially if you've got 4 or more wounds!). However they have one huge downside, which I've talk about many times on this forum - their Bravery. Bravery 6 on a 3 wound model is terrible. By that I mean you pay a lot of points for each one and each that dies to Battleshock really feels like a big big loss.

Currently I run 1x 10 (Jagged-hackas) and 2x 5 (Choppas). The unit of 10 are the centre of my army without a doubt. Fantastic unit and I'm definitely going to pick up a couple more boxes so I could run a 2nd unit of 10 with the 'hackas if I wanted to. The perfect storm for them is (IMO);

  • Warchanter buff (+1 to hit. A must. Don't forget you can stack this if you want. Normally not needed, but worth considering).
  • Megaboss buff (re-roll 1's to hits within 5". You'll probably want your Megaboss getting stuck in anyway. Irrelevant if fighting units with 4+ wounds though, thanks to Duff up da Big Things)
  • Inspiring Presence (Whilst the Waaagh! command ability from the Megaboss is brutal on these and will be used at times dependant on where you are, what you're fighting and how many units are about. All in all I prefer the insurance afforded by this command ability.
  • Cover! (+1 save always nice...getting a unit of 10 in it is a rare thing though tbh)
  • Mystical Terrain (Yeah yeah...don't play for Mystical Terrain!! ****** that. Rolling 2+ is easy and Re-roll wounds is awesome!)

I think that's about it off the top of my head. There are other things, the Waaagh ability as mentioned, even the Ardnob's command ability is nice for multiple units (probs best for MSU Brutes). Also I didn't mention Mystic Shield and Damned terrain Les, the reason for this is that I really really don't like the Weirdnob Shaman. If I went full Destruction I'd get in a cheeky 60pt Grot Shaman for the Mystic Shield, but at 120pts its a heavy tax. I am a massive massive fan of Damned terrain in most instances, however I don't think the Brutes need it that often what with the Warchanter(s). Sure +2 to hit is very nice for the Boss Grabba and the Gore-Choppa's, so it can be a consideration for sure.

Just some of my thoughts anyways...

Edited by Chris Tomlin
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On ‎10‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 3:17 PM, LordDrakonus said:

Great too read your adventures.While I agree with your opinions on the shaman I think your selling goregruntas short I've been using 3 units in gorefist and it's amazing 

Cheers bro! Thanks for reading :)

Tbh my experiences with Gore-gruntas so far has been limited to one unit of 3. I do like that there are some differing opinions floating round on the piggies and am very keen to run the Gorefist at some point. I am ordering 2 SC boxes so that I can do this very thing!

What do you back them up with? Ardboyz seem a good choice in this type of list for extra bodies on the table.

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Good morning,

Hope everyone had a good weekend? After a reasonably heavy Friday (had to drink away the pain of Suicide Squad!), I had a pretty quiet one and after running some errands was able to crack into some painting ahead of Brothers of Sigmar (1,000pt doubles tournament) this coming weekend.

I am pleased to say I finally finished off the Ardboyz. As per usual, rubbish photos, but overall I am happy with how these came out. What do you think?

I've also included a group shot so you can see the new basing on the Megaboss etc. Just 10 Brutes to go for the weekn (which I did make some progress on yesterday)...

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Hope you like them!!

I've also purchased;

  • 2x Start Collecting: Ironjawz
  • 2x Savage Orruks
  • Battletome: Beastclaw Raiders

So looking forward to plenty more Destruction goodness. @LordDrakonus and @Dez thanks for your thoughts on the Gore-gruntas. I'll have a run out with the Gorefist later this year and let you know how I get on.

Have fun,

Chris

Edited by Chris Tomlin
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Thanks @N_Watson

Yeh, Sylvaneth are a very powerful army for sure. That said I think in theory we do ok against them (I'm looking to get in another game vs @Forestreveries now he is more experienced with them). Spirit of Durthu is solid for sure, but the -2 to hit can be negated with a couple of Warchanter buffs (remember it stacks). Throw a unit of Brutes in so that they are rerolling hits thanks to "duff up da big things" and with the rend I'm sure you'll be able to do some damage...at least witling him down so he's not doing a consistent 6 damage anyway! You could also use a Cabbage to scream off some wounds and hit him with the Destructive Bulk.

Don't be disheartened, you can do it!

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Thanks for that. Never thought about stacking the +1s. What about dropping ravager for the +1 to hit command trait? 

Another thing I am curious about is how you find your megaboss on foot. Not sure if it is just me but I can't get him in to a fight easy. Find he is so slow behind the rest of my force and gets shot at a lot. 

Also, going to steal your basing idea big time.  What colours did you use? Lol

 

Edited by N_Watson
Correction for Tim
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1 hour ago, N_Watson said:

Thanks for that. Never thought about stacking the +1s. What about dropping ravager for the +1 to hit command trait? 

Another thing I am curious about is how you find your megaboss on foot. Not sure if it is just me but I can't get him in to a fight easy. Find he is so slow behind the rest of my force and gets shot at a lot. 

Bellowing Tyrant? Yeh that's an idea for sure, if you find they are getting the drop on you then the extra movement might not matter so much (still getting D6 anyways). I myself plan to try out this trait a bit too.

The Megaboss was the first Ironjawz model I painted it and I love the job I did so figured I'd always use him. Unfortunately, pre GH he was pretty rubbish as he literally never got into a fight. With Rampaging Destroyers + Ravager I find I can get him into solid positions and the Battle Brew turns him into a bit of a combat beast. So yeh, I'm liking him a lot now.

1 hour ago, N_Watson said:

Also, going to steal your basing idea big Tim. What colours did you use? Lol

Big Tim?! haha :P 

Basing is sand painted Mournfang Brown then washed (brown or black wash is fine). Leave some patches bare and apply Agrellan Earth to these (I use Rhinox Hide as a basecoat, depends how dark you want the cracks). Then drybrush the entire thing with Zamesi Desert (think its called that!) and finally with Screaming Skull. Patches of static grass and black rims to finish. Nice and easy. Pretty simple but looks decent IMO.

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Chris, the Ardboyz look great! I really like how they're coming together and the pink war paint is great, especially on the Drum, very very cool bro!

The basing is really effective and despite being relatively simple looks great. A job well done mate, I look forward to seeing how you tackle your Gruntas...

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Cheers @Mitzy & @LordDrakonus, glad you boyz like 'em!

I didn't want to go ott on the basing, but am happy with it for sure.

Interestingly the Gore-gruntas are the first thing in the army I've not had a predetermined plan on how to paint (having imported the scheme directly from my 40K/GorkaMorka Orks). I do have some ideas, but I think I will paint the Cabbage first.

Watch this space.

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@LordDrakonus - Yeh I am quite looking forward to painting the Cabbage, I have a scheme in mind for it. Tbh it'll probably the next thing I paint once my 10 Brutes are finished for this weekend (after painting a bunch of infantry it'll be a nice chance of pace). I did a little progress video late last night which you can see on my twitter feed - @the_black_sun

I also slipped and bought the German starter set for Konflikt '47 - Have a Hydra themed army planned for that, but my focus needs to remain Ironjawz as from next Monday I'll have just under 3 weeks to paint the Cabbage, Ardnob, 5 Brutes and 3 Gore Gruntas! :S 

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As you mentioned before the bases are just a little plain. Is there anything that you can get on there to brighten them up and give another texture? A lighter green folliage, maybe something like the clump foliage from woodland scenics. Some rusted armour or discarded weapons maybe. I think even some larger rocks might work too? Anyway just a suggestion for the bases the models themselves look great.

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On ‎18‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 8:48 PM, Redmanphill said:

As you mentioned before the bases are just a little plain. Is there anything that you can get on there to brighten them up and give another texture? A lighter green folliage, maybe something like the clump foliage from woodland scenics. Some rusted armour or discarded weapons maybe. I think even some larger rocks might work too? Anyway just a suggestion for the bases the models themselves look great.

Hey man, thanks a lot for the feedback. As it is I am now more than satisfied with the bases with the addition of the Agrellan Earth. There is now 3 textures, all of which offer something different but still remain cohesive. Had a lot of good feedback about the application of the Agrellan Earth so am happy :).

Anyone who follows me on Twitter may have seen that I did indeed get my 1,000 points finished for Brothers of Sigmar (a doubles tournament this weekend just gone). However batch painting 10 Brutes to a good standard was far more time consuming than I expected. I predicted around 8-10 hours to finish off the models on Friday (everything was basecoated and washed, metals were complete and flesh almost done, so seemed realistic at the time)...I was pretty hungover from @The Lost Lighthouse (Gary)'s wedding the day before so started at midday...I ended up painting until just gone 3.30am on Friday night / Saturday morning, with only breaks to eat. ...and then had to go to bed and sent my alarm for 4.45am to get up, shower, pack my bag and leave for the event. Suffice to say I was pretty shattered Saturday (still am now tbh!!), though tried to strike a balance where I could be drunk and not feel too awful!

It was a phenomenal weekend, played some great Warhammer, chatted some great Warhammer and had plenty of fun off the tables as well. I will of course write up reports on the 5 games I played with @Paddy O'Sullivan as my partner in crime.

For now though I will reveal I did manage to take home the Best Painted award, which was amazing. I was pretty overwhelmed as its been such a long time since I won one of these awards having predominately used speed painted armies over the last couple of years and indeed never winning one with an army other than my Dark Elves, so it was pretty special. Really great to hear awesome comments from many of my peers who I respect as painters themselves and after all the really hard work I've put in, it felt like such a pay off. Definitely up there in my top 3 awards. So just a massive thanks to anyone who voted or liked the pics on Twitter etc.

Commiserations to @Cowboy Boots Matt & @Lez who finished up 2nd and 3rd. They've both done very well on painting recently and will continue to win awards.

I will of course get plenty of pics of the new Brute unit plus some army shots up here ASAP along with those reports.

Chris x

Edited by Chris Tomlin
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