Blood and glory

[Malakree]

How have people been doing? I've seen a ton of ironjawz around but most of us seem to be loosing 

Anyone managing to fight for the top tables, facing down those pesky fyreslayers

[PlasticCraic]

I noticed a Mixed Destruction army did quite well, any idea what they were running?  Were the Firestorm rules in play?

[Malakree]

9 hours ago, PlasticCraic said:

I noticed a Mixed Destruction army did quite well, any idea what they were running?  Were the Firestorm rules in play?

Im almost 100% that you could use firestorm allegiances just because they had wysiwyg paint jobs. I'm hoping that some of the better players like @Sangfroid can give us a good idea of how things went at the higher tables. It felt like there were a lot of IJ kicking around the mid tables at least.

There was another IJ player who I had next to me in game 2 with both of us vs fyreslayers. It feels like IJ have an awful matchup against them because of the huge amount of saves they get. We were table buddies for 2/3/4 and he was rocking a Gargant with his list. He finished 4/2 I believe. 

[Chris Tomlin]

Neither myself nor @Sangfroid, the two most experienced Ironjawz players, were in attendance at B&G unfortunately. James who did incredibly well at the GT Finals was also notably absent (I'm not sure how much of an independent tournament goer he is though tbh).

I was hoping to speak to some of those who were though to get a bit of a read on the event from an Ironjawz PoV.

That said, I think it might be easy to look at the results and be surprised there are no Ironjawz near the top (barely top 1/3). But if we look at previous events under GH2017, more often than not it's been 1-2 players with good finishes and the rest of the Ironjawz players looking pretty similar to this I'd guess. So perhaps not much to take from this other than we were missing a stand out performance?

[Malakree]

41 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

That said, I think it might be easy to look at the results and be surprised there are no Ironjawz near the top (barely top 1/3). But if we look at previous events under GH2017, more often than not it's been 1-2 players with good finishes and the rest of the Ironjawz players looking pretty similar to this I'd guess. So perhaps not much to take from this other than we were missing a stand out performance?

I know I got curbstomped by a ridiculously good and experienced fyreslayers but I went expecting to lose every game so was very happy with what I managed. Maybe it was just that the top tier IJ players weren't there.

I don't know about anyone else but I played 5 super tanky armies and then got my tactics all wrong against sylvaneth in game 6. There's something so rude about having to do knife to the heart when he starts with a wildwood down on your vp, the gitmob grots made their points in deployment but he had a pre turn 1 teleport of 6 sycthe wielding tree doom lord things in mah face.

Definitely feeling the skill difference between even the bottom tables and my flgs. Learned a bunch.

[Chris Tomlin]

38 minutes ago, Malakree said:

Definitely feeling the skill difference between even the bottom tables and my flgs.

Yeh more often than not there is a bit of gap between the two. I feel like some people don't realise this when playing at their club or conversing online etc so can go in with unrealistic expectations and end up disappointed (to clarify, I'm not insinuating this applies to you as it clearly doesn't!). When I very first started going to Tournaments in WFB 6th edition I went in thinking I'd be right at the top after smashing everyone in my GW and endless posting on Druchii.net thinking I was the bee's knees! It was basically a case of big fish in a small pond and when I was dropped into the ocean of an old skool GW Heat populated by cut throat Italians and the like it was a bit of a rude awakening haha! Thankfully events are much friendlier now anyway, but you get my drift!

I think the best thing new players can do is to approach the event with the goal of meeting some new people and learning about theirs and their opponents armies, to further their overall understanding of the game. If you can come away from an event saying...

38 minutes ago, Malakree said:

Learned a bunch.

I think it's been a wholly worthwhile experience. Those lessons learnt will serve you valuably going into your next event and those after that as well. They say you learn more in defeat than through victory and I do find that holds true.

Me and @Sangfroid had a great conversation at FHGT about how Ironjawz are very match up dependant and to reach 4 wins in a 5 game event, you do probably need a favourable draw, regardless of skill level/experience. 2/3 wins is probably average for most Ironjawz players across a 5 game event.

So don't beat yourself up about losses or placing. Just try to understand why they occurred and what (if anything!) you could do differently next time. These forums are great for hashing out that kind of conversation.

I hope you enjoyed your first taste of tournament play and hopefully I'll see you at some in 2018 (I took the decision mid last month to drop out of all further events in 2017)!

Chris

[Malakree]

@Chris Tomlin I went expecting to lose every game. I much preferred being on the bottom 1/3rd of tables just for the environment. It was far more casual and friendly despite still being far better than flgw. 

I also played in the shadespire (6th!!) on Friday and didn't sleep Thursday to get 8 of my brutes up to code. As it a 6 game event I was wiped by that sylvaneth game. 

Experience over the past 30 years in a huge variety of games has taught me that I'm an amazingly good theoretical player who struggles to turn that into realistic game play. If I was thinking about competing properly it would be in shadespire not AoS, it melds my card game and board game (rather than wargame) experience beautifully.

My list was primarily designed with 2 ideas. 1) No MK and 2) let me use experience all the units. It did that in spades and I have a far better understanding of everything you guys have been saying than I could get in a year of conversation. 

I'll definitely be going to more tournaments, the skill level is far closer to where I want to be and really appeals to me. I've always preferred to be the small fish ?

 

[Steve Rose]

I attended B&G this weekend with iron jaws. I had a very successful first day with two major wins. I feel on day two I had bad matchups with the scenarios and then got beaten 3 times.

 

my two victories on day one was against mixed destruction  scorched earth.

frost lord. Stonehorn

huskard thunder tusk

3x 10 savage orruks

20 moon clan

2x spear chukkas

1 x rock lobba

1x hunter

2x2 saves tusks in a formation.

 

second was a lord Kroak army

Battle for the pass

kroak

aatroloth bearer

skink priest

eternity warden

40 skinks

10 skinks

5 temple guard

3 rippers

formation that makes the rippers mental.

[Steve Rose]

My list

 

Allegiance: Destruction
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (460)
- General
- Trait: Ironclad  
- Artefact: Daubing of Mork  
Orruk Megaboss (140)
- Artefact: Destroyer  
Orruk Warchanter (80)
Gitmob Grot Shaman (80)
- Allies
10 x Orruk Brutes (360)
- 2x Gore Choppas
5 x Orruk Brutes (180)
- 1x Gore Choppas
5 x Orruk Brutes (180)
- 1x Gore Choppas
10 x Orruk Ardboys (180)
- 10x Big Choppas
10 x Orruk Ardboys (180)
- 10x Big Choppas
Ironfist (160)

Reinforcement Points (0)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 80 / 400
 

[PlasticCraic]

On 11/7/2017 at 12:47 AM, Malakree said:

I know I got curbstomped by a ridiculously good and experienced fyreslayers but I went expecting to lose every game so was very happy with what I managed. Maybe it was just that the top tier IJ players weren't there.

I don't know about anyone else but I played 5 super tanky armies and then got my tactics all wrong against sylvaneth in game 6. There's something so rude about having to do knife to the heart when he starts with a wildwood down on your vp, the gitmob grots made their points in deployment but he had a pre turn 1 teleport of 6 sycthe wielding tree doom lord things in mah face.

Definitely feeling the skill difference between even the bottom tables and my flgs. Learned a bunch.

So how did you finish up overall Malakree? 

Any specific learning points you'd be willing to share, including anything you would do differently against the Sylvaneth next time?

[sirflukesalot]

i brought GutBusters and came 75th overall which isnt bad since i lost a bunch of soft score points due to painting the entire army on friday night 

list wasnt super competitive but had a lot of fun and got two Major Victories! not bad for my first 6 games of Aos ever!

faced 5 chaos armies 1 nurgle 1 mixed chaos(90 plaguebearers) the 12th place murderhost,  dan mitchell's skaven and blades of khorne(blender of khorne i  found)

and one soulblight army with two vamp lords on zombie dragons+ a mournghoul

+ i now know what to change about my list and hopefully ill be even better placed next year!

+gonna get movement trays sorted for the grots(have em but didnt sort em out in time)

+bit more prep next time lol

 

plus i met loads of great people there!

My list:

Allegiance: Gutbusters

abilities: destruction
ability(might is right)
Leaders
Tyrant (160)
- General
- Great Gutgouger
- Artefact: Battle Brew

Butcher with Great Cauldron (140)
Butcher with Great Cauldron (140)
Battleline
12 x Ogors (400)

- Gutbusters Battleline
6 x Leadbelchers (280)
- Gutbusters Battleline
6 x Leadbelchers (280)
- Gutbusters Battleline
Uniys
2 x Gorgers (120)
2 x Ironblaster (280)
40 x Grots (200)
Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400

 

 

[Malakree]

47 minutes ago, PlasticCraic said:

So how did you finish up overall Malakree? 

Any specific learning points you'd be willing to share, including anything you would do differently against the Sylvaneth next time?

So I try to keep my name and my Internet pseudonym separate, as a result I'm not guna give you my actual finish position. That said it was WAY down the rankings haha.

There were a bunch of things that were around very specific units where due to the lack of variety at my flgw, I have just never played against them.

Against the Sylvaneth he was running a battalion which let him have a free post deployment teleport. As I had deployed all my brutes to one side of knife to the heart there was no way I could get in position to respond before he started killing grots and opening the wildwood teleport. I should have deployed the 5 man brutes in position to be able to instantly respond and punish it.

My biggest take homes were actually to do with playing at a tournament itself. Things which you just don't appreciate before hand.

1) Bring water, a game is a 2 and a half hour conversation. With three in a day you NEED to drink.

2) Bring some way to transport your army without repacking it into your case. The lower tables were rife with armies being carried on books etc.

3) movement trays really help your big units. Having to move 30 ardboyz 1 by 1 is a nightmare. 

4) learn to roll fast. I never actually made it past round 3 in any of my 6 games. There was at least one I lost that I might have won if it went 5 rounds.

6) as an extention to that, tokens denoting rounds taken, buffs and such are really helpful.

7) distance markers are really important for speeding gameplay up, one of the things I want to make at some point is a movement variant of the snookers bridge. Something which I can put at the front of my models base the just pick them up, move them to another plastic line and know I moved exactly 4 inches. Similarly 9" and 12" sticks make deployment much faster.

8) fatigue plays a large role. By the 5th/6th game my brain was clocking out. If you think by that point I'd played over 10 hours of sigmar, and around 5 hours of shadespire, in 2 days it was no wonder.

There were some things I learned list wise but a lot of it is personal. For example I LOVED having 3 spells a turn. All ardboyz in the near future will get 2 handers just to reduce the amount of dice I have to roll, plus the extra rend is worth far more against douche matchup like fyreslayers. 

I also think I either need another 3/6 GG squad for mobility or take the Ironfist. Without them we are so slow. By the same token a footboss is worthless at 2k. You need a fast hero and ideally it should be monstrous.

Lastly anti-horde is key. I would srsly consider a Wurrgog Prophet for his fist of gork. The fact he is my 3rd spell caster for free is icing on the cake. 

The future list I'll be moving towards is something like 

Allegiance: Ironjawz
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (460)
- General
Orruk Warchanter (80)
Orruk Warchanter (80)
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (120)
Wurrgog Prophet (140)
- Allies
30 x Orruk Ardboys (450)
10 x Orruk Brutes (360)
3 x Orruk Gore Gruntas (140)
3 x Orruk Gore Gruntas (140)

Reinforcement Points (0)

Total: 1970 / 2000
Allies: 140 / 400
 

I did love the 30 ardboyz and weirdnob shaman but struggled to keep them together. They also needed the mystic shield which the MK might get priority on. Maybe drop them to go something like

Allegiance: Ironjawz

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (460)
- General
Orruk Warchanter (80)
Orruk Warchanter (80)
Wurrgog Prophet (140)
- Allies
Orruk Warboss (140)
- Great Waaagh Banner 
- Allies
Wardokk  (100)
- Allies 
10 x Orruk Brutes (360)
- Ironjawz Battleline
6 x Orruk Gore Gruntas (280)
- Ironjawz Battleline
6 x Orruk Gore Gruntas (280)
- Ironjawz Battleline
4 x Ironskull's Boyz (80)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 380 / 400

[Sangfroid]

Ironskullz boyz are fantastic simply because their points cost is only 2pts per model on top of plain Ardboyz which to me means that they are totally viable as a matched play selection (more so than the Khorne guys for Sure!) originally I was going to get some just use as variety in my units (have 40 Ardboyz already) but think I may just use them as their own unit, do love a good ead’butt reminds me of the original boss Grimgor, Gork rest his choppa!

[PlasticCraic]

31 minutes ago, Sangfroid said:

do love a good ead’butt reminds me of the original boss Grimgor, Gork rest his choppa!

Woulda been nice if it did mortal wounds, wouldn't it! 

Yeah my current thoughts are that they are viable at the points cost, cheap enough to leave behind on a home objective for example. 

The Troggoth Hag I'm currently using doesn't allow much else in the way of Allies (could squeeze in a Wolf Chariot maybe, but that's about it).  So I don't mind the idea of a few bodies from an Ironjawz unit, with the Mighty Waaagh and other synergies that implies.

 

[heywoah_twitch]

How has the hag worked out for you? She looks like a beastly, if expensive, caster.

[PlasticCraic]

1 hour ago, heywoah_twitch said:

How has the hag worked out for you? She looks like a beastly, if expensive, caster.

Bit of a mixed bag really - she's not been amazing so far, but I've seen enough to persevere.

In 3x practice games I've not got her spell off once (literally zero times).  So by my maths I'm due to successfully cast 12 times in a row, just to get back to average.

That being said, even without her spell (which is one of the main reasons I took her), she has chipped away with her other attributes.  Her shooting and melee has meant that she wasn't a total bust, and because she is that triple threat, she's got multiple opportunities to contribute.  

I've not yet dropped the Weirdnob Shaman (even though that was part of the rationale for taking her).  I do like the idea of using one of them for Mystic Shield, and the other for their warscroll spell (which one is which depending on the situation).  However I am still playing around with the idea of dropping the WNS for a Warchanter and putting the 40 points towards Ironskull's Boyz in some way.

[Chris Tomlin]

On ‎08‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 12:29 AM, Sangfroid said:

Ironskullz boyz are fantastic simply because their points cost is only 2pts per model on top of plain Ardboyz which to me means that they are totally viable as a matched play selection (more so than the Khorne guys for Sure!) originally I was going to get some just use as variety in my units (have 40 Ardboyz already) but think I may just use them as their own unit, do love a good ead’butt reminds me of the original boss Grimgor, Gork rest his choppa!

My thoughts exactly. I'll definitely be adding these boys to my army...most because they look cool, but also they seem viable. Considering dropping 5 Brutes for Ironskull's Boyz and a 3rd Spear Chukka (have 20pts spare). There's a few different options though.

[Anaticula]

A little off:

I live in continental Europe but I'd really like to come to some of the many UK tournaments next year. Are there certain you would especially recommend? Or some I could most likely meet some of you guys?

 

[Lysandestolpe]

I have my ticket for Heat 1 on January 13-14th, @Anaticula