'Competitive' Ironjawz

[Malakithe]

For the summer campaign I'm thinking the Realm of Life needs to be more...green.

I want to build a good all arounder with the main body, a battalion, being Ironjawz. 

I'm thinking a good one would be a weirdfist with lots of bodies. Then supporting with mr. maw. After that 2×thundertusks for that ranged power.

What else would be good for competitive play? 

[Soulsmith]

I wish I could help more, but aos for me is simply hypothesis right now. Gordrakk seems super strong though.

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[Dez]

I've very little practical knowledge with AoS at the moment and haven't played the Ironjawz at all. I'd think that the Ironfist or Brutefist might be better. I'd have to roll some dice and figure it out, but I'd probably rather get the extra movement, getting the Foot of Gork is still random though if the dice are hot it can be devastating. 

[Malakithe]

I was thinking ironfist but looking at it, it's still a d6" and the unit can't run anyway. So it's just letting you run in a different phase. 

[gnaleinad]

Hmmm.. A sound IronJaws army for any game.. 

1 Gorefist: 3 units of 3 Gore-Gruntas
- they will reach any objective and hold them! 
1 Brutefist: 3 units of 5 Brutes
- they really can kill whoever you charge!
1 Weirdfist: 3 units of 10 Ardboys with Shields
- potential killer spells that is can be outside normal unbind range, the shield makes the Ardboys last longer.
1 Megaboss
- makes your Brutes really brutal.

Using the SCGT this list is about 100 points.. Which is just nice for a quick game!

[graemelyon]

On 15 June 2016 at 9:51 PM, Malakithe said:

I was thinking ironfist but looking at it, it's still a d6" and the unit can't run anyway. So it's just letting you run in a different phase. 

Not quite… If you use the Ironfist move, you can still charge. That's the real benefit of it, it's essentially a Run + Charge. Also, it doesn't actually stop you running in the Movement phase. The wording is:

Quote

'Ere We Go! ’Ere We Go! ’Ere We Go!: Urged on by their Big Boss, the mobs in this battalion are forever rushing forwards to get stuck into the fight. As long as the battalion’s Big Boss has not been slain, in your hero phase each unit in this battalion can move D6". Roll separately for each unit, and then make its move in the same manner as a move in the movement phase, except that the unit cannot run.

The "the unit cannot run" is referring to this bonus move, not to be unable to run in the Movement phase. So it actually has all sorts of utility.

[Malakithe]

Ahh that makes more sense. Well I will have a lot of brutes coming so I can field the brutefist, ironfist, or wierdfist with help from Gordrakk and 2 thundertusks 

[Malakithe]

Has anyone used gorgers? Curious about how they would perform

[Malakithe]

Well if the battleline unit thing is bad I can't use thundertusks or gorges anyway in matched play...******

[Soulsmith]

Hey even so, stonehorns and thundertusks look awesome.

[Malakithe]

Yeah if I can't use them in my matched play list they will look good on a shelf

[Dez]

I'm interested to see how that's going to play out, I don't imagine it will be too prohibitive as they want us to use large swathes of models from different ranges.

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey,

If you are talking pure Ironjawz, then unfortunately I think you might struggle. I've played a lot of AoS with a lot of different things and without a doubt, Ironjawz have felt the weakest off the bat. The word "weakest" may not be the best as clearly they can put out a lot of hurt.

I haven't used Gordrakk, but clearly he is a super solid option and has the potential to buff out of faction stuff. If, like me, you opt for the regular Maw-Krusha, you will still have a powerful monster with some funky rules. Fun to use and pretty solid tbh.

Where the faction falls down is movement 4 infantry. The battalions that allow extra movement are well worth a look tbh. The Brutes are fantastic when swinging, great fun and aptly named. However, in return they drop like flies. Bravery 6 on a 3 wound model is utterly crippling and you'll find your opponent going through these like a hot knife through butter - why they went up to 9 in SCGT pool costs (before any tournament use!) is completely beyond me.

Most people and events are playing a lot of objective based battleplans, it its this that amplifies the weakness of the slow foot sloggers. In the Gore Gruntas we do have an option for some reasonably solid mid range cavalry. Their battalion allows them to get in position for objectives. I'd initially planned to play without them, but I just don't think you can (if going mono Ironjawz).

Ardboyz are just totally meh, in a pure Ironjawz list their only purpose appears to be bodies on the table, again at move 4 they aren't going to be marauding across the table but will boost your Weirdnobs. On the topic of the Shaman, he's fun and has good utility with the spells. In multiple games he's literally done more damage to me than my opponent - remember the D3 wounds on a double! That rule isn't optional. Just don't get carried away with the Foot...I can tell you that from experience!

Tbh I haven't had much experience branching out into Destruction as a faction yet... other than my Magma Dragon, which whilst on paper is complete filth, hasn't always lived up to the hype (mine and my opponents!). I do like the idea of the Stonehorn and or Thundertusk and will be looking to convert some up with Brute crew down the line.

Just some thoughts for now - ymmv! Have fun  

[Nico]

I agree with Chris - Gordrakk is as much a virtually mandatory choice as Settra is for Tomb Kings for competitive play.

Slowness really sucks when you don't have much shooting/are almost never going to be playing Defence.

I'd get some Monstrous Arcanum back up, e.g. Dread Maw is really handy as an infiltrator. Magma Dragon is great against Stormcast, Ogres, other Ironjawz.

[Malakithe]

Well my initial plan was 2 thundertusks. They off great mortal wounds and are monsters that are still a good size

[Malakithe]

Well this is a good start

[Soulsmith]

So you pay extra points for a battalion benefit? Makes sense.

[Dez]

A little weird coming from 40K, where it's just free.

[maximum_pants]

re: gorgers, I've run them at tournaments a bunch of times. they seem to have 2 good uses, 1 being another target for enemy shooting. if you popup near a cannon usually the cannon shoots at it instead of other things, and 2 getting objectives, most comp packs require a unit with 5 or more wounds to get an objective, and they can often teleport next to an objective and grab it. don't expect them to win any combats though, they normally die to cannon crews.

 

re: gordrak, we'll have to wait and see how he is in the new GW handbook. I found him overcosted at 22 scgt pool points, because he was just as hitty as a stonehorn, and a stonehorn did it for 18 pts. In the new GW points he's 700 (35 pool points)

for that price i'd rather have 9 Ironguts. They're probably battleline too.

 

[Malakithe]

Yeah 700 is a bit up there but that's on part with nagash being 900pts. And from what I see/read gordrakk can murder nagash anyway

[Nico]

Gordrakk is a lot more hitty than a Stonehorn - 4 mortal wounds on the charge as a start.

Anyway - his cost reflects his godly command ability.

[Malakithe]

Yep. Command ability on himself and he will straight up melt whatever puny plastic is infront of him lol

[Nico]

Or on the Spiderfang Formation for autowin!

[Dez]

Using that formation ruined the game for my friends when AoS came out. Funny that it came through and won SCGT.

[Malakithe]

Oh man gordrakk and spiders would be nuts lol