GH2017 - Ironjawz Review & Discussion

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning all, 

 

A very rare Saturday post from me (though I'm writing this in the week). This is because I have been waiting for the General's Handbook 2017 to go on preorder today before I can talk to you lovely people about it. Now I'm sure there will be plenty of leaks out by the time I release this as is always the way, but still I hope this will still be of interest. 

 

As some of you will know, I am in the privileged position to receive review copies of GW new releases to talk about on my podcasts (AoS - The Black Sun / 40K - The Triumvirate). So my usual approach for this kind of thing would be to record a solo show this weekend for release in my usual slot on Monday. This time round I've decided to do things a little differently as there will undoubtedly be a plethora of GH2017 reviews out for you over the next week; podcasts, blogs, YouTube, you name it.

 

My plan here instead is to write this article for you, the people of the TGA Destruction sub forum. Whilst in places TGA gets a bit of bad press nowadays, I think we as a sub forum have kept an incredible level of positivity and created a fun, friendly place to post and discuss our love for AoS, which is great. It truly makes my weekdays more bearable and I get a lot of joy from posting, reading, replying and just generally interacting with all you guys. So this here is my initial overview of Ironjawz in the General's Handbook 2017!

 

As for the podcast, obviously this new publication will remain the main focus for some time now and my intention is to do a series of Allegiance specific shows as opposed to trying to cover the book in full. Once @Sangfroid  has had a chance to read the book I will be getting him on to discuss Ironjawz in more detail, by which time I'll have played some games and may have expanded upon or changed my opinions on the below. There will also be a Nighthaunt show with @Mengel Miniatures , a Slaanesh show with Bryan Carmichael etc etc. I'm not entirely sure this is the best way to go about it and perhaps doesn't make best use of the early access, but I wanted to try something different, so we'll see how it goes. 

 

I probably should've stuck this episode on my website to generate traffic or whatever, but yeh as I said, I thought it'd be cool to share this with you guys right here! I guess other than reading, replying, sharing etc the only other thing I'd ask in return is that you check out my sponsor, Element Games and click through this link to get your purchases (ie a GH2017 preorder!!) - http://elementgames.co.uk/warhammer?d=10210

 

Well I think that's enough preamble that no one cares about, right? You're just gonna scroll down and get to the goodies....tbh this is exactly what I did when I got my Handbook, flicked straight to the Ironjawz, so I can't blame you (though I urge you to stop on page 1 for just a moment when you have the book yourself! /vanity ~ love you GW!!). 

 

Soooo.... The goal here is pretty much to go over everything Ironjawz in this new book. In time I may open up discussion on the other Destruction elements, but I need to stick to my roots and talk about what I love for this post. Obviously I won't be quoting whole sections of the book, listing points values or anything like that. However this review should be able to give everyone a great idea of what we have to look forward to...and boy do we have a lot to look forward to. Ok let's dive in;

 

Matched Played Rules

 

Whilst there is some new stuff in here around The Rules of One etc, coming at this from an Ironjawz point of view I just wanted to touch on the fact that I can see nothing stopping non-Hero Generals or the stacking of effects. I've double checked this a couple of times as I had expected to see both included. I suspect these will still be popular Tournament house rules, but that aside you can still have a Brute Boss as your General and stack your Warchanter buffs. Now I'll say upfront, you may not need the Boss General anymore and we'll get onto why in a bit, but if you know my previous feelings on such things you'll understand there must be something good coming! Also like some of the more recent Battletomes, you can't take a Command Trait unless your General is a Hero, which I think is an elegant work around. Obviously this is just a first look and it's gonna be fun trying to new stuff, but it'll be interesting to see if we settle back into the Brute Boss General. Off the bat though it has to a thumbs up that it's still an option and better still that there's other stuff that may at least make you consider other things. 

 

Pitched Battle Profiles - Points

 

So here's where it gets exciting, right? There have indeed been some reductions for a number of Ironjawz units you will be pleased to hear;

 

* Both Gordrakk & the regular Megaboss on Maw-krusha have received substantial points drops roughly around what I expected and advised. I think the Maw-krusha would've needed to drop a little more for a Double Dragon list to become an archetype, however as it is it could certainly be a fun consideration. 

* Ardboys have remained the same whilst in a unit of 10, but they do now have an option to be fielded at a discounted rate as a Massive Regiment. The discount here is actually pretty sizeable so is good value, the flip side being it'll cost you not far shy of a quarter of your army! Definitely a nice option that I want to see on the table. I'll be thoroughly disappointed if @Sangfroid isn't rocking one at BLACKOUT! No 5 man unit option and these remain Ironjawz Battleline only. 

* Gore-gruntas got the reduction everyone was expecting. You can extrapolate this cost from the Skirmish book. Whilst I've long said this unit is a Warscroll issue, not a points issue, this reduction is a nice fix. I can see myself continuing to field these regularly and will now fancy them both as quick, cheap objective grabbers in 3's as well as big pork tarpits in 6's. 

 

And that's it for the units. Absolutely nothing to complain about there. Completely happy with these as sensible reductions. If you run a list now with a Maw-krusha and 2 units of Gore-gruntas (like I did at EGGS), with these reductions you could pick up a 3rd unit of piggies gratis!! #cashback

 

Now that's not entirely true unfortunately, as the eagle eyed reader will notice I haven't covered Battalions yet. There is seemingly a trend throughout this edition of the General's Handbook to increase the cost of Battalions, though I'll admit I haven't spent too much time comparing others (it's all about the Ironjawz man!!) the Ironjawz ones are no different; they have all been increased by the same amount. This figure is almost surprisingly large, however as mentioned it does appear to be a game wide trend, presumably with overall internal balance in mind.

So what does this mean? Well, the Ironfist is now more of a must than ever (we'll get onto this - a couple of reasons why!) so I think we'll just take the hit and suck it up as its that good. Unfortunately this increase does eat up most of the free points we've gained back above. This would mean my EGGS army would remain exactly the same, although in tomorrow's money I could upgrade the 2nd unit of pigs to Brutes/Ardboys. Obviously this is using just one list as an example...if you previously ran a Godrakk Gorefist list, even with the Gorefist rise you'd still have plenty of spare change. 

I guess I would've like to have seen some of the other Battalions go cheaper than the Ironfist (even with them all going up) as it means we'd see them more. 

 

It's hard to talk too much about how my old lists translate as I actually think it'll be a case of building from the group up now. We have the fantastic Allies rules (more in a min) and also the two super cool mega Battalions that I haven't mentioned yet. I'll talk about what these include later, but yes, we get a one drop army!!! How exciting is this? All in, it's gonna cost us 280-300 in tax to gain this ability (so potentially smaller armies) but the benefits are huge. We'll get onto that. I'll also give some example army lists I've been considering in a second post. 

 

Allies

 

Well surely this is one of the most exciting things in the book for us?! I'm sure many of you are like me in that you have countless projects laying around, previously hampered by Battleline restrictions, so this is a fantastic move by GW - from a hobby point of view as well as gaming. 

 

So as Ironjawz, we can ally with; Aleguzzler Gargants, Bonesplitterz, Gitmob Grots, Greenskinz, Moonclan Grots, Troggoths

 

How cool is that? So I won't go into all the options, but I thought it might be fun to pick a few;

 

Aleguzzler Gargants; enough said surely! We all talked about armoured Gargants when the Thunderfist box came out at Christmas last year. Now we can field two in a 2,000pt army. It's gotta be done!

 

Bonesplitterz; well I always wanted to finish my Ardboy Yoofs (Savage Orruks) to use as generic Battleline. Whilst I'd love to do so as it was a cool concept, I'm so pleased I don't have to now in order to unlock some of this other cool stuff. Note the Savage Orruk units are now capped at 30. Big Stabbas are 100% on my list though. I converted one and was really happy with it, definitely more to come. You can ally a Teef Rukk which is pretty cool!

 

Gitmob Grots; Spear Chukkas! What more to say. Great addition to an Ironjawz army for sure. Obviously you could pick up some cheaper bodies here as well as the Battleplans are still mostly model number focussed. Massive Regiment of Grots clocking in under 300 has potential. 

 

Greenskinz; well there are some juicy options here! The newly rereleased Rogue Idol clocks in at 400 points with the Greenskinz keyword. That, is exciting. It has a buff that boosts Ironjawz bravery, their Achilles heel (until it dies!), and would be a fantastic centrepiece. Can see this being popular. The Wyvern and Warboss with Banner are also strong choices (though less so if not your General)

 

Moonclan Grots; Doesn't necessarily appeal to me in an Ironjawz army, but the power of Grots & their Fanatics is undeniable. Note that Fanatics now come in a minimum unit size of 3! 

 

Troggoths; always wanted to paint the Fellwater Troggoth models! Could squeeze 6 into your ally allowance with a bit of change. 

 

Note that no Beastclaw monsters will be seen in Ironjawz armies. 

 

For me, the ally rules are one of the biggest hits of this book. They've done a fantastic job with them I think. It's a great idea and opens so many doors in terms of modelling and gaming. Can't wait to see what combos people come up with! 

 

Allegiance Abilities: Destruction 

 

Now before we get on to the really juicy party that is the Ironjawz abilities, I would be remiss to ignore the generic Destruction stuff and talk about where that is in GH2017. This will be a very quick rundown, just to tell you why (at an initial glance) we, as Ironjawz players, do not need to concern ourselves with pages 156-157 of this book...we're onto bigger and better things! 

 

Battle Trait - Rampaging Destroyers; I think will all saw a change coming here and I have to say that what GW have done is a pretty sleek simplification of what was a heavy dice rolling exercise. That's all well and good, but unfortunately the new rule is much less reliable as you only roll for Heroes and need to get a 6 (+2 for the General) to trigger an effect. If you do happen to roll that hallowed 6 (TBS dice are recommended) the abilities are nice for a selected unit; a 6" move, a pile in or a charge depending on the units proximity to the enemy. I always said that how good the Ironjawz abilities would be would also depend on the Destruction ones in turn; so with this change I think it's fair to say we'd be open to checking out something new. 

 

Next let's check out the Command Traits. Remember your General has to be a Hero to access one of these;

 

Nothing Left Standing; same as before, however it now doesn't remove special scenery rules.  

 

Might is Right; same as before, doesn't apply to mounts now. 

 

Wild Fury; this has been simplified. It's now a flat +1 to hit if you've suffered any wounds. Again this would not apply to mounts. 

 

Bellowing Tyrant; total change up here, this now grants +1 to run and charge rolls and you can use the General's Bravery for the selected unit. 6" range. 

 

Big and Brutish; unchanged. 

 

Ravager; now adds +1 to the Rampaging Destroyers roll. This means your General triggers it on a unit on a 4+. 

 

Funnily enough, even though there are lots of changes there I still think the two most used now (Bellowing Tyrant & Ravager) will remain top of the pile. I think Ravager would be my pick. 

Ok one last thing before we hit the Ironjawz abilities - the Artefacts of Destruction;

 

Hammerblade; same as Meteoric Hammerblade 

 

Battered Talisman; the flavour text here seems to denote that this was once the Talisman of Protection, however it's now a dirt-encrusted remnant of its former glory. As such, it's now a 5+. 

 

Rockeye; a renamed Gem of Seeing. WFB Ogre Kingdoms players will enjoy the reference. 

 

Bellowing Blade; a renamed Blade of Vituperation. Call it what you want, you won't see it!

 

Collar of Domination; unchanged. 

 

Battle Brew; ahhh the big one! Remember when this artefact was fine...like before Frostlords were a thing. They ruined the bro juice for everyone. As suspected, this took a hit. One use only and inflicts D6 mortal wounds at the end of the turn. 

 

So like the Command Traits, the same two artefacts are likely to be the ones you see, even with a slight hit. Talisman and Battle Brew in this case. Rockeye now has a place though to be honest and could well overtake Battle Brew. Has a nice inbuilt anti-Frostlord effect with the range as well. 

 

There we have it, the state of Destruction...kinda the same, but reigned in a little and fairly so I think. Whilst nothing there previously was a problem with Ironjawz, there was so much out there that made it an issue. So with that in mind I think these are pretty much necessary changes. It will also make any Ironjawz player reading this entirely ready to embrace what's next I suspect. Had we still had everything as good as before we might be slightly less willing....but yeh, let's do this!!!

 

Allegiance Abilities: Ironjawz

 

Here we are, the business end of this ramble! Let's not delay any longer and kick off with the Battle Traits;

 

Mighty Destroyers; this is the new Rampaging Destroyers, for free! So we just get the generic Destruction ability (with more to come!). Whilst this ability is by no means reliable it's a very tasty freebie. The +2 for the General here only triggers if your General is a Megaboss. 

 

Smashing and Bashing; you've seen this on the Community page. A very nice ability that can create some fantastic chain reactions. Note that it just says the combat phase so this also works in your opponents turn; wow!! Ordering combats will be more important than ever. I love a bit of finesse with my Ironjawz and which this seems so brutal, it will require planning to execute to its greatest potential. 

 

Eager for Battle; +1 to charge!! No stipulation other than being an Ironjawz unit. What more do I need to say here?! Brilliant. 

 

So there we are, three innate abilities that all work really well together. I think we can be pretty happy with that. You see why I believe the Ironfist to still be ultra important even given its price hike. Great stuff here though. Let's move on to the Command Traits;

 

Hulking Muscle-Bound Brute; re-roll 1's to wound for your General. Meh, not bad, but keep reading. 

 

Live to Fight; General can re-roll hits if he charged. Probably better than above, but we haven't hit 11 just yet! 

 

Brutish Cunning; this is utterly gaming winning. On a 5+ you can have one Ironjawz unit close to your General charge at the start of your enemies charge phase before they do any. Fantastic. Just a shame it's always a fixed dice roll with no manipulation. Still, we'll get some stories here. Imaging triggering a Maw-krusha Destructive Bulk chain in your enemies charge phase!! Stories inbound!

 

Bestial Charisma; other than being a phrase often used to describe me, I think this is my fav Command Trait. D3 Inspiring Presences. Yes please. 

 

Prophet of the Waaagh!; you can reroll Waaagh! or Mighty Waaagh! dice, or gain the Command Ability if you don't have it. Some people may enjoy this, does nothing for me though considering I don't use those command abilities anyway. 

 

Ironclad; Rend -1 when attaching the General. Not bad at all on a Maw-krusha IMO. Wish it was an artefact. 

 

Some brilliant stuff there. Brutish Cunning and Bestial Charisma being absolute stand outs for me. Let's see if the Artefacts off anything of interest....

 

Armour of Gork; bounces a mortal wound to the opponent in combat on a save of 6+. 

 

Destroyer; increases the damage of one weapon by 1. Doesn't work on mounts. Really nice on a Megaboss' choppa. 

 

Daubing of Mork; ignores wounds and mortal wounds on a 6+. Probably nicer on a Maw-krusha as with more wounds there's more chance of hitting this a couple of times. 

 

The Golden Toof; Ironjawz units close by can auto pass battleshock of the bearer killed a model in the last combat phase. Situationally brilliant. As someone terrified of battleshock this has appeal, but spoiler, read on!

 

Metalrippa's Klaw; +1 Rend on one weapon. Doesn't work on mounts remember. 

 

The Boss Skewer; very much a case of saving he best for last here IMO. This adds +1 to your bravery in the battleshock phase and -1 to the opponent. Reasonable range on this one. 100% the first thing I'd be taking from this list. 

 

One thing I don't think I mentioned is that you can only take each Artefact once. So there we are, some very exciting stuff in here I think you'll agree. 

 

I'm worry I've gone on a bit long here so think I'll call it there. There's plenty for you all to get your Teef into. I'll come back with a second post on Sunday or Monday and cover off the two new battalions (which are both brilliant btw!!) and show some of my first army lists. Sorry I haven't been able to cover it all off in one go, this was pretty time intensive haha!!

 

Phew, there we go. Hope that reads ok and is of interest to you guys. I appreciate I've not given too many of my own opinions on things so far, but it's early days and super exciting times!! Plenty of conversation to be had. 

 

Let's call it there. Let me know what you think, is this a good format for review as a supplement to the podcast? Interested in all kinds of feedback. First time I've done this and worried it's a bit vague. 

 

Anyway, thanks for reading,

Chris x

 

[Mohojoe]

I could kiss your hairy man chops


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TDK]

Great write up bro. 

[N_Watson]

Great stuff! 

[Chris Tomlin]

Cheers guys,

Just remember this is an initial read through and discussion. Entirely possible I have missed some things or my opinions may be flat out wrong!

That's half the fun though right?

I have been informed that your leader must be a General, so that's my mistake there. 

Also I am able to confirm that I was fortunate enough to be invited to provide some direct feedback to GW regarding these points changes and it's nice to see that my opinions were mostly inline with GWs ?

Chris 

[Sangfroid]

@Chris Tomlin nice write up fella, 

for the battle traits do we get all three or is a case of picking one of the three? 

Better battleshock protection (if you want it) more damage more rend more charges more more more more, can't wait to get my hands on it properly :-) 

the formations thing is interesting if we can effectively take the same armies as before but the enemy now either can't take a formation or loses the effectiveness of it (let's just say for example 10 & a 5 Paladins in a Hammerstrike instead of 2 x10) then this is a pretty sizeable boost to IJ as i have often thought I could have won a game if I had just 10 more Ardboyz (insert 5 brutes or goregrutnas here) 

a megaboss on foot with a rend -2 or damage 3 choppa  (and as far as I can tell no points change from your post)

im a very happy man

[Donal]

Great write up, definitely think BCR allegiance abilities are worth considering now.

 

does think rock eye affect mounts for the +1 to hit?

 

 

[Xelotath]

Thank you for posting this! I couldn't be more excited for Jawz players ATM! 

I really like the plus 1 damage artefact on a foot megaboss. Three damage per swing on 6 attacks! 

[Koalaninja]

Thank you for putting in the time and effort to write this. Hero.

[Nico]

Looks great - thanks Chris.

 

[Chris Tomlin]

18 minutes ago, Sangfroid said:

@Chris Tomlin nice write up fella, 

for the battle traits do we get all three or is a case of picking one of the three? 

All three!! Pretty exciting stuff imo. 

Im out Go Karting on Dom Hook's stag weekend at the moment so will reply more later if I get a chance. 

Thanks for reading and sharing! 

Chris x

[Chris Tomlin]

20 minutes ago, Donal said:

does think rock eye affect mounts for the +1 to hit?

Nope. Mounts are exempt from such things now. Think there are a couple of exceptions in the book. 

[Donal]

8 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Nope. Mounts are exempt from such things now. Think there are a couple of exceptions in the book. 

Thanks. Think I'm happy about this change cause it means I'll run everwinter allegiance. 

 

Enjoy the stag do, give my best to Dom.

[Imperial]

Thanks! But no spells for shaman and no artefacts for chanter? ( 

[cb_rex]

An interesting read, it sounds like they've tweaked the army to make it essentially more fun to play, charging and ruining peoples plans, doing what a great big Orruk should, smashin' stuff up good and proppa.

[Double Misfire]

Hey Chris, was great getting a game in against you and Aaron on saturday, congrats on taking the title. Excellent and very thorough post. Any chance of something similar for Dispossessed?  

[Sangfroid]

25 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

All three!! Pretty exciting stuff imo. 

Im out Go Karting on Dom Hook's stag weekend at the moment so will reply more later if I get a chance. 

Thanks for reading and sharing! 

Chris x

 

[Furious Robert]

Great write up. Ironjawz look like a force to be reckoned with in the future. 

I feel for my Gutbusters now.  Looks like the best they have is being Allies to Beastclaw.

[Imperial]

I found ironsunz battalion photo( 

[WAAAGHdogg15]

I have a barely begun IJ army which I was losing my hobby mojo for. After reading this, I can't wait to crack on with them  great write up Chris. Will read your promised follow up posts with great interest!

[Seraphage]

Thank you so much man ! 

I 'm an Order player myself ready to take you brutes on with my Seraphon and Dispossessed but I really enjoyed reading this !

Always nice to get more information on the good book ! 

[Hounsou83]

SAre there generic spells for ironjaws or destrucion? 

 

[Soulsmith]

3 hours ago, Mohojoe said:

I could kiss your hairy man chops

Get in the queue, git.

Great work, good write up, enjoyed the sprinkling of bestial charisma here and there

Just curious as to whether Brutish Cunning can be used on the general himself or only a nearby unit.

[Sangfroid]

5 minutes ago, Soulsmith said:

Get in the queue, git.

Great work, good write up, enjoyed the sprinkling of bestial charisma here and there

Just curious as to whether Brutish Cunning can be used on the general himself or only a nearby unit.

The leak on the community site says a the word within so that's already been FAQ to mean themselves so yes can be used on themselves (as Chris said one day some lucky Megaboss is going to combo destructive bulk in the opponents charge phase :-)

[Tizianolol]

Guys with this ally we can finally put a cheep grot shaman In ironjawz list! I know, it's not good to see a grot into a ironj list , but immagine how it work in a tournament! 60 pts for mystic shield:)