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Destruction at CanCon 2018


PlasticCraic

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I thought I’d create a thread for those of us who attended CanCon over the weekend to report back on how our games went, any learning points, and general thoughts on the event.

For those who don’t know, CanCon is a major wargaming convention in Australia which takes place in Canberra on Australia Day weekend.  The AOS event was a 2-day, 5 game tournament with 104 attendees (from 110 places sold).  We did notice that we were bigger than LVO this year J

I took Ironjawz to the event, and finished up with 3 Major Wins, 1 Minor Loss and 1 Major Loss.  This only got me to 40th place overall, but I did meet my personal targets of 3 wins and Top 3 for Destruction.

My army was:

 

MBMK (Ironclad, Meatrippa)

Shaman

Chanter (Boss Skewer)

 

Troggoth Hag

 

10x Brutes

10x Ardboyz

3x Pigs

3x Pigs

 

Ironfist

 

Just as a bit of background I took Ironjawz knowing that they are an army that can be very punishing of mistakes, because I do want to improve my game.  I think I made two significant mistakes across the tournament which I will cover in the batreps, but I’m very open to any feedback people have, including any questions you might have on more specifics / positioning etc.

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Day 1

 

Game 1

Awesome start to the event against a Moonclan Grot list!  Very happy to be playing against such a cool army and a great opponent.

The battleplan was StarStrike, which is a big favourite of mine.  TBH the Grots were a bit overmatched here and I did manage to table my opponent within 4 rounds.  It was one of those good matchups where Ironjawz feel like a force of nature. 

I did also manage to set a new PB for chaining Smashing and Bashing – I pulled off a run of 4 J

 

Game 2

Things got a little harder against Stormcast in Scorched Earth, featuring a Stardrake (Mirrorshield, Staunch Defender) with a Castellant to back him up, and 6x Fulminators.  Battleline was 3x Judicators. 

I did manage to burn a couple of his objectives early on (surprised him by retreating 3x Pigs onto an unguarded objective), and then played containment and had a lead right up until the end.  My opponent needed a 3 on D3 with his burn (last roll of the game) to draw level on the scenario and take the minor on kill points.  Yep, he got it!  Epic end to an epic game.

My main learning point here was actually a moot point in the end, but I could have given myself a better chance to put the game to bed.  In my turn 4 (I was on for the double), my Maw Krusha was in combat with the Stardrake near the middle of the table, and wearing him down pretty quickly (he had 5 or 6 wounds left, I can’t quite remember).  The Castellant was off to the side on my opponent’s last remaining objective. 

I tried to make a judgment call on what my best chance was of getting to the Castellant (bearing in mind I have to kill him to cap the objective, so retreating straight onto it wasn’t an option):

Spoiler

Option 1

Retreat at the bottom of turn 4.  If I win the priority roll, I charge the Castellant, in all likelihood kill him (between the yelling attacks, the mortals on the charge and a round of combat).  That seals the game because I’m too far ahead.

If I lose the priority, he can charge me again with his Drake from 3” away, and then I’m tied up for my turn 5.

So it really comes down to 50:50 that I claim that objective.

Win the priority roll and win the game; lose it and my opponent still has a 33% of the win, depending on his burn roll.

 

Option 2

Stand and fight the Stardrake. 

If I can kill him, I am free to charge the Castellant next turn and ice the game regardless of who wins priority. 

If I can’t kill him and lose priority, he will have had two rounds of combat into me from his Drake, a round of Rain of Stars, and a round of shooting from his Judicators before I get the chance to hit back, so my chances of killing him in his turn diminish.

If I can’t kill him and win priority, my only hope is to finish him off with my shooting attack and charge off again.  This is very unlikely and offsets the chances of my failing to kill the Castellant in Option 1.

So essentially, it’s Kill the Drake in turn 4 and win the game; fail to kill it and my opponent still has a 33% of the win depending on his burn roll.

 

So really it comes down to whether or not taking 5 or 6 wounds off a Drake with my Krusha is above or below the 50% probability of winning priority.

I wasn’t really sure…I had done similar damage the turn before with what felt like average rolls, so it felt like it would be around that mark…and I guess it was just an easier decision to stay there and fight.  I made the call that I would try to kill the Stardrake, and of course I ended up leaving him on 1 wound.

As it happened, I didn’t get the double so even if I had retreated, he could have charged his Drake back into me and left me tied up for my turn 5.  I do think I made the wrong percentage call though, and next time I would retreat. 

As a general reflection, I’ve never finished a game and thought, “I wish I had retreated less”, which probably says something.

Very interested to hear other people’s thought on that one!

As a reflection on the scenario, I think it was Terry Pike who was recently saying that he really doesn’t like the D3 burn as a mechanic for a Matched Play mission.  I think he suggested that it should be a straight 2 points for the burn instead, and I can see where he is coming from.  This one finished up level on scenario points because my opponent scored 6 points on his burns to my 4, and it does feel strange that you can lose despite doing everything the mission asks in terms of controlling and capturing objectives.  I have been on the right side of those D3 rolls too sometimes too of course!  So this really isn’t meant to be a moan and it didn’t spoil the game for me at all.  But in a Matched play scenario I do feel like that particular scoring mechanic is an unnecessary layer of randomness that won’t always reward the best play.

This one is definitely a favourite mission of mine.  I’ve personally never had that bad experience of an alpha strike army making it a non-game, and although I totally get how that would be a bad experience, when you are playing a “normal” army in this one it’s often the best mission you’ll play.  Hopefully any potential FAQ to tweak this scenario is relatively minor to tidy up those edge cases, because fundamentally this is a great battleplan.

What a game.  Swings in momentum, big decisions, big rolls, big moments.  And my opponent was a true gent.  This is the type of game that you come to a tournament for.

 

Game 3

This game was a little more relaxed after the rollercoaster in Game 2.  My opponent had mixed Death and we faced off in Battle for the Pass.  His army was pretty nice, and included Arkhan, a VLOZD, a 40-block of Skellies and a few other units and support pieces. 

Essentially my strategy was to set up to hold on one flank, and push hard through the other to try and smash through and onto his home objective.  So when he placed his 40 block of skellies I put my Ardboyz and Pigs opposite that, and my Brutes + Krusha on the other side. 

I put my opponent in first.  He got up onto the objectives and claimed 5 points.  He did move up his VLOZD quite aggressively which I assumed to be bait (I thought he was hoping I would move up my Maw Krusha to take it on, leaving it sitting in Curse of Years range).  The other thing he could have been doing of course is trying to bully me with Curse of Years, so if I didn’t take the bait he could dominate the objective on my strong side, and pick his target with the VLOZD next turn.  Quite a bold move and it did give me something to think about, but unfortunately I think he made a little bit of a blunder in his movement and maybe underestimated the speed of the Krusha.  I was able to move the Krusha right up to 3” away from his screen and popped a decent charge, so I could fly right over the top of his thin line and charge straight into Arkhan.  That meant I was able to charge his VLOZD along the deck with my 10x Brutes, and of course that is their ideal opponent. 

The Maw Krusha did Arkhan in a one-er and triggered Smashing and Bashing on the Brutes, who sent the VLOZD packing too.  I actually felt a bit guilty triggering that second activation and taking off both key pieces so early in the game.  We had a good chat afterwards and discussed how next time he might be able to prevent a repeat with careful zoning.  Long story short my Krusha was then straight onto his home objective and cleared off the zombies holding it up, and with me holding 3 out of 4 (and his army decimated) he was happy to call it there.

I think this one was a good illustration of what the GH17 abilities did for Ironjawz, which is turned them up to 11.  The armies that we could already handle, we can now REALLY handle.  There are still some armies out there we don’t have the tools to deal with, but I think that’s been covered enough by now (I know I’ve certainly said my piece J ).

So at the end of Day 1, I was on 2 major wins and a minor defeat, which was pretty encouraging.  I felt like I’d played 3 pretty tight games apart from the one bad judgment call in Game 2 which gave me a good learning point.  Most importantly I’d had 3 great games against 3 great opponents.

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Day 2

 

Game 4

This time we were playing Total Conquest, up against another Stormcast list with tanked-up Stardrake and 6 Fulminators.  This one featured 10 Judicators and 6 Longstrikes, so lots of Pew Pew. 

When my opponent deployed quite conservatively, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I outdropped him and because he wasn’t really threatening the objectives, I was happy to let him go first, and hopefully get a “free” double turn.  The gameplan being to control 3 objectives and fight the battle in his corner – maybe even getting a shock and awe double turn early on.

I think he expected me to go first so I felt like I was on the front foot quite early.  He brought down 5 x Liberators on my “narrow” side, and scored 2 points for that one plus his home objective.  He did roll really well on his Rain of Stars and Longstrikes though, so I took a fair amount of damage on my heroes.  That was always the risk in putting him in first with his redonkulous range, so no complaints there.

I sent a unit of Pigs their way, and pushed the bulk of my army forward to cap his “thin” side and push towards his army. 

I got my first turn charges off with my Maw Krusha and Brutes, and although I rolled very poorly, I did take off a few pieces and was set up nicely for the double turn.  As it happens I didn’t get it and lost the Maw Krusha on his Turn 2, but I wasn’t too stressed because the objectives were going my way.

On my opponent’s “thin” side the Gore Gruntas were winning the fight with his Liberators.  He had stepped everything forward a little to engage with the threat at his front door.  I retreated the Gore Gruntas out of combat and ran them towards his home objective which was vulnerable to a run down the short table edge since he’d stepped forward.  On a 2+ I would have actually capped it which would have been awesome for scenario points, but even falling an inch short it meant his army had to do a U-turn and start engaging with the threat at his home objective.  I brought my second unit of Pigs across to finish off the Liberators I’d retreated from, so I was holding 3 objectives by Turn 2 and in good shape. 

My opponent did tell me he got a shock when I retreated the Gore Gruntas, because he hadn’t expect me to disengage from a combat I was winning. 

The rest of the game was essentially him ruining my army while I held him up as much as possible.  Tagging his units, and leaving staggered lines to stop him pressuring my home objective.  The Troggoth Hag was very useful in this one with her shooting output, durability and debuff spell.

By the end of the game I had barely anything left on the table, but by the time he dealt with me it was too late for him to start scoring so I took out the Major win.

 

Game 5

Bonesplitterz!  I played a guy with a Kunnin Rukk and allied Ironjawz (Weirdnob Shaman, Balewind, Warchanter and 5x Brutes).  This would always be a tricky one because of his ability to reach out and touch my heroes with his ranged attacks (Kunnin Rukk and Balewind).  My gameplan was to go first and get on the objectives, and with some durable units in his lines I should be able to hold his own heroes off for long enough even if mine did die.  You don’t need that many turns of holding it to be in good shape.  In fact if I could avoid the double turn from 1 into 2 I think I would have been in a great position – but even losing it I could have a good chance. 

With both players being 3-1 going into this one, we were confident it would decide best in GA Destruction, and so it proved.

I set up with a unit of Pigs up front on each side, and one of my behemoths on each objective.  The Hag was opposite the arrow boys with some Brutes and a Warchanter for backup, and my Maw Krusha with his escort of Ardboyz and a Shaman was opposite his Weirdnob Shaman and 5x Brutes.

I capped both objectives and got the pigs up to pin him in place.  If he failed Hand of Gork he would have his arrow boys in range, and he would need to cast Foot of Gork to threaten my Maw Krusha.  Unfortunately he did succeed on both of these casts, and did double turn me.  That meant that he could shoot off my Hag, and he successfully cast Foot of Gork for a second time to further damage my Maw Krusha.  My GGs and Brutes had his units engaged on the side where I lost my Hag to the Arrow Boys, so although the Rukk had done their job by shooting me off, he wasn’t pinned back too far to cap the objective on his second turn even with Hand of Gork.  Given that he was now only going to score 3 points max on that side to my 1, and couldn’t bring his arrow boys across to threaten the other objective because my Brutes had them wrapped up, I was happy enough with that outcome. 

This is where I made my big error.  He brought some Boarboyz forward to threaten me and I charged my Ardboyz forward to meet them and screen off my Maw Krusha.  His Brutes were miles away, but I did leave a small gap between them and the terrain that they could fit through.  He was able to pull off an 11” charge and get to my Maw Krusha.  I was still pretty confident that I would win that combat (saving on a 2+), and I had double Sinister to help Battleshock them off.  My opponent made virtually every wound roll and I failed a few saves.  My Krusha (with rend -2) and Ardboyz then attacked his Brutes and they made a whole lot of 6+ and 5+ saves.  I think he failed something like 2 from 11 where most where on 6+.  It was my turn next so I had another chance to clear them off, but the same thing happened again.  I think even one failed save would have been enough because I was also stacking double Sinister, but I just couldn’t land a blow.  So in my combat phase he killed the Krusha.

I was still ahead on points and had I won the next priority to get the double turn back, I would still probably have won.  Reason being he had only one hero who could cap my objective (the others were either miles away on a balewind, or held up by my Brutes that were punching through his arrow boys).  I could have charged him and wrapped him up with my Ardboyz (probably even killing him given his 6+ save and an arcane bolt into him), and sealed off the win.  However I did lose priority again, he charged my Ardboyz with some Boarboyz to keep them off his hero and capped the objective.  That was the game and it had been epic!  Quite a few key moments and whole rollercoaster of emotion.  Well done to my opponent (Jett) who was top Destruction and crowned King of the Orruks!

Although it took a long sequence of events starting with an 11” charge for me to lose the game, I really cannot blame the dice at all.  That 11” charge was only possible because I’d made a mistake and failed to seal off an edge, so no complaints there.  If I’d been tighter in my play, there was no opportunity for the charge, so it’s a big, big learning point and not something I will do twice! 

Overall I finished up 3rd highest Destruction and 3 Major wins, which was my goal going into the event.  I did get two good learning points from my defeats too, and played 5 great games against 5 top opponents.

See you next year!

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8 minutes ago, Fridge_Opener said:

Sounds like a solid opening day man, fair does!! A pity on the razed earth mission but I do get the randomness on it, I believe its to make people consider sitting on them for a turn instead of auto razing. Great showing dude 

You make a good point mate, and at the end of the day it is a dice game! 

I've always had great games on this scenario and maybe I've underestimated how much the D3 does contribute to that.

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Also I should point that Jett finished 4-1 and 15th overall with his Bonesplitterz, top Destruction at the event.  He played a smart game in what could have been a tricky matchup for him, so well done to him.

Coolest game of the event was Spiderfang vs Spiderfang in Round 1!  My clubmate Shaun lost that one, but did go on to win his first ever game of AOS in his Game 3 against a Gnarlroot list, then backed it up by beating (and tabling!) a Stormcast list with double Stardrake!  

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2 hours ago, PlasticCraic said:

Day 2

 

Game 4

This time we were playing Total Conquest, up against another Stormcast list with tanked-up Stardrake and 6 Fulminators.  This one featured 10 Judicators and 6 Longstrikes, so lots of Pew Pew. 

When my opponent deployed quite conservatively, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I outdropped him and because he wasn’t really threatening the objectives, I was happy to let him go first, and hopefully get a “free” double turn.  The gameplan being to control 3 objectives and fight the battle in his corner – maybe even getting a shock and awe double turn early on.

I think he expected me to go first so I felt like I was on the front foot quite early.  He brought down 5 x Liberators on my “narrow” side, and scored 2 points for that one plus his home objective.  He did roll really well on his Rain of Stars and Longstrikes though, so I took a fair amount of damage on my heroes.  That was always the risk in putting him in first with his redonkulous range, so no complaints there.

I sent a unit of Pigs their way, and pushed the bulk of my army forward to cap his “thin” side and push towards his army. 

I got my first turn charges off with my Maw Krusha and Brutes, and although I rolled very poorly, I did take off a few pieces and was set up nicely for the double turn.  As it happens I didn’t get it and lost the Maw Krusha on his Turn 2, but I wasn’t too stressed because the objectives were going my way.

On my opponent’s “thin” side the Gore Gruntas were winning the fight with his Liberators.  He had stepped everything forward a little to engage with the threat at his front door.  I retreated the Gore Gruntas out of combat and ran them towards his home objective which was vulnerable to a run down the short table edge since he’d stepped forward.  On a 2+ I would have actually capped it which would have been awesome for scenario points, but even falling an inch short it meant his army had to do a U-turn and start engaging with the threat at his home objective.  I brought my second unit of Pigs across to finish off the Liberators I’d retreated from, so I was holding 3 objectives by Turn 2 and in good shape. 

My opponent did tell me he got a shock when I retreated the Gore Gruntas, because he hadn’t expect me to disengage from a combat I was winning. 

The rest of the game was essentially him ruining my army while I held him up as much as possible.  Tagging his units, and leaving staggered lines to stop him pressuring my home objective.  The Troggoth Hag was very useful in this one with her shooting output, durability and debuff spell.

By the end of the game I had barely anything left on the table, but by the time he dealt with me it was too late for him to start scoring so I took out the Major win.

 

Game 5

Bonesplitterz!  I played a guy with a Kunnin Rukk and allied Ironjawz (Weirdnob Shaman, Balewind, Warchanter and 5x Brutes).  This would always be a tricky one because of his ability to reach out and touch my heroes with his ranged attacks (Kunnin Rukk and Balewind).  My gameplan was to go first and get on the objectives, and with some durable units in his lines I should be able to hold his own heroes off for long enough even if mine did die.  You don’t need that many turns of holding it to be in good shape.  In fact if I could avoid the double turn from 1 into 2 I think I would have been in a great position – but even losing it I could have a good chance. 

With both players being 3-1 going into this one, we were confident it would decide best in GA Destruction, and so it proved.

I set up with a unit of Pigs up front on each side, and one of my behemoths on each objective.  The Hag was opposite the arrow boys with some Brutes and a Warchanter for backup, and my Maw Krusha with his escort of Ardboyz and a Shaman was opposite his Weirdnob Shaman and 5x Brutes.

I capped both objectives and got the pigs up to pin him in place.  If he failed Hand of Gork he would have his arrow boys in range, and he would need to cast Foot of Gork to threaten my Maw Krusha.  Unfortunately he did succeed on both of these casts, and did double turn me.  That meant that he could shoot off my Hag, and he successfully cast Foot of Gork for a second time to further damage my Maw Krusha.  My GGs and Brutes had his units engaged on the side where I lost my Hag to the Arrow Boys, so although the Rukk had done their job by shooting me off, he wasn’t pinned back too far to cap the objective on his second turn even with Hand of Gork.  Given that he was now only going to score 3 points max on that side to my 1, and couldn’t bring his arrow boys across to threaten the other objective because my Brutes had them wrapped up, I was happy enough with that outcome. 

This is where I made my big error.  He brought some Boarboyz forward to threaten me and I charged my Ardboyz forward to meet them and screen off my Maw Krusha.  His Brutes were miles away, but I did leave a small gap between them and the terrain that they could fit through.  He was able to pull off an 11” charge and get to my Maw Krusha.  I was still pretty confident that I would win that combat (saving on a 2+), and I had double Sinister to help Battleshock them off.  My opponent made virtually every wound roll and I failed a few saves.  My Krusha (with rend -2) and Ardboyz then attacked his Brutes and they made a whole lot of 6+ and 5+ saves.  I think he failed something like 2 from 11 where most where on 6+.  It was my turn next so I had another chance to clear them off, but the same thing happened again.  I think even one failed save would have been enough because I was also stacking double Sinister, but I just couldn’t land a blow.  So in my combat phase he killed the Krusha.

I was still ahead on points and had I won the next priority to get the double turn back, I would still probably have won.  Reason being he had only one hero who could cap my objective (the others were either miles away on a balewind, or held up by my Brutes that were punching through his arrow boys).  I could have charged him and wrapped him up with my Ardboyz (probably even killing him given his 6+ save and an arcane bolt into him), and sealed off the win.  However I did lose priority again, he charged my Ardboyz with some Boarboyz to keep them off his hero and capped the objective.  That was the game and it had been epic!  Quite a few key moments and whole rollercoaster of emotion.  Well done to my opponent (Jett) who was top Destruction and crowned King of the Orruks!

Although it took a long sequence of events starting with an 11” charge for me to lose the game, I really cannot blame the dice at all.  That 11” charge was only possible because I’d made a mistake and failed to seal off an edge, so no complaints there.  If I’d been tighter in my play, there was no opportunity for the charge, so it’s a big, big learning point and not something I will do twice! 

Overall I finished up 3rd highest Destruction and 3 Major wins, which was my goal going into the event.  I did get two good learning points from my defeats too, and played 5 great games against 5 top opponents.

See you next year!

That's a bit unfortunate with the 11" charge but if the mistake was giving him the opening then you're right not to feel too aggrieved. Still its nice having done so well in an event that you can look back at a couple of rolls, gametime decisions that could have shot you up the rankings. Is there anything you'll change from the list?

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@PlasticCraic great series of write ups fella, the most important thing to take from this is, is the ability to see where you could have turned both games around,on a different day the 50/50 goes your way or the guy doesnt roll 11” charge and your sitting pretty on 4 wins and one loss, which is a respectable result for ANY army let alone tier 2 ironjawz. 

Sounds like you had a bucket of fun too, the troggoth Hag is baller right :-) 

one last thing NEVER apologise for smashing and bashing off anything especially Arkhan the black and and vampire on zombie dragon, it is a thing of beauty and should not be sullied by Grot-like apologies :-)

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14 hours ago, Fridge_Opener said:

That's a bit unfortunate with the 11" charge but if the mistake was giving him the opening then you're right not to feel too aggrieved. Still its nice having done so well in an event that you can look back at a couple of rolls, gametime decisions that could have shot you up the rankings. Is there anything you'll change from the list?

Yeah exactly!  I'll take it as a lesson.  I was making two mistakes per game when I first picked up Ironjawz, so 2 per event is definitely heading the right way :D

In terms of the list I'd probably keep it as it is for now.  I've still not played enough games with it to be bored.  There will always be something you can't tackle (I was really glad I didn't face a Clown Car!) but she does provide multiple tools in one.  Just that damage output in an extra phase is huge - a couple of times my units would be tagged by the remnants of something (1 Liberator or whatever) and looking at wasting a turn of combat output to either retreat or finish them off.  Being able to ping them off with her shooting and roll the Brutes or Pigs forward was really helpful.  Her combat output is actually surprisingly feeble, but of course her spell is massive and a durable hero is always nice! 

Another cheeky one to look out for is that large base of hers...in one game, I was able to straddle two pieces of Arcane scenery and double stack the +1 to cast.  Her spell going off on a 5+ was nice!  Obviously it won't always be available, but it's worth bearing in mind when choosing table sides (and deny the Nurgle players the same opportunities with their GUO!).

At some point I will try out the 3x Spear Chukkas again - it's an easy trade out for the same points (albeit adds a couple of drops).  I really want to try the Bloodtoofs batallion for hyper movement too, although I recognise that we have few enough bodies as it is!  Not so much because I think it would be super competitive, but moreso to experiment and have some fun.

Overall I think my best chance of cracking open 4 wins is to persevere with this army and really get efficient with it, hoping for that one event where it all comes together and you get the right matchups (like I did here to be fair).  You will occasionally get absolutely ruined by something of course!  But there is no one list to rule them all (certainly not in Ironjawz!), and I believe this army does have the tools to deal with a good range of opponents if played well. 

What's your thoughts?  Any tweaks you would suggest?  I'm totally open to all feedback!

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12 hours ago, Sangfroid said:

@PlasticCraic great series of write ups fella, the most important thing to take from this is, is the ability to see where you could have turned both games around,on a different day the 50/50 goes your way or the guy doesnt roll 11” charge and your sitting pretty on 4 wins and one loss, which is a respectable result for ANY army let alone tier 2 ironjawz. 

Sounds like you had a bucket of fun too, the troggoth Hag is baller right :-) 

one last thing NEVER apologise for smashing and bashing off anything especially Arkhan the black and and vampire on zombie dragon, it is a thing of beauty and should not be sullied by Grot-like apologies :-)

Thanks for that! 

Yeah I'm a big fan of hers, the model is very cool too.  I got a lot of "What the @#$% is that?" from my opponents :D

LOL yeah I should have got up in his face instead..."I've got skills, what you gonna do about it?"  Who cares about sports scores!

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6 hours ago, PlasticCraic said:

Yeah exactly!  I'll take it as a lesson.  I was making two mistakes per game when I first picked up Ironjawz, so 2 per event is definitely heading the right way :D

In terms of the list I'd probably keep it as it is for now.  I've still not played enough games with it to be bored.  There will always be something you can't tackle (I was really glad I didn't face a Clown Car!) but she does provide multiple tools in one.  Just that damage output in an extra phase is huge - a couple of times my units would be tagged by the remnants of something (1 Liberator or whatever) and looking at wasting a turn of combat output to either retreat or finish them off.  Being able to ping them off with her shooting and roll the Brutes or Pigs forward was really helpful.  Her combat output is actually surprisingly feeble, but of course her spell is massive and a durable hero is always nice! 

Another cheeky one to look out for is that large base of hers...in one game, I was able to straddle two pieces of Arcane scenery and double stack the +1 to cast.  Her spell going off on a 5+ was nice!  Obviously it won't always be available, but it's worth bearing in mind when choosing table sides (and deny the Nurgle players the same opportunities with their GUO!).

At some point I will try out the 3x Spear Chukkas again - it's an easy trade out for the same points (albeit adds a couple of drops).  I really want to try the Bloodtoofs batallion for hyper movement too, although I recognise that we have few enough bodies as it is!  Not so much because I think it would be super competitive, but moreso to experiment and have some fun.

Overall I think my best chance of cracking open 4 wins is to persevere with this army and really get efficient with it, hoping for that one event where it all comes together and you get the right matchups (like I did here to be fair).  You will occasionally get absolutely ruined by something of course!  But there is no one list to rule them all (certainly not in Ironjawz!), and I believe this army does have the tools to deal with a good range of opponents if played well. 

What's your thoughts?  Any tweaks you would suggest?  I'm totally open to all feedback!

No man I really like your list!! It's a bit different from what people expect from ironjaws to with the hag. I think there is a lot to be said with playing loads of games with 80% of the list decided and you just tweak that last bit. I'm planning on picking up the hag now to try with my gutbusters 

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 First, congrats on a stellar showing! I love reading these and other battle reports people post. 

23 hours ago, Sangfroid said:

one last thing NEVER apologise for smashing and bashing off anything especially Arkhan the black and and vampire on zombie dragon, it is a thing of beauty and should not be sullied by Grot-like apologies :-)

This! I played in a tournament and had opponents grumble over smashing and bashing. I simply reminded them of their own allegiance abilities. On average I can get it to trigger once or twice per game. 

I can't tell you how many games I've lost because blood tythe points are used to gain advantage when I win a priority roll.  You have sylvaneth players running  through trees, stormcast doing all kinds of things, seraphon dominating board control with teleporting, etc...

If anything I find myself putting my boyz at risk more frequently. Playing aggressively to trigger smashing and bashing  or hope for the double turn.  Often against stronger armies  it takes that one key turn with  smashing and bashing to stay in the game. 

I love the feeling when  a plan works out and I can retreat one unit out of a combat situation or choose a unit of gruntas to go first over more obvious choices like mbmk. In order to get smashing and bashing to trigger.  Admittedly, I've let myself vulnerable to the dice gods when I whiff my attacks or my opponent makes multiple 5+ saves. But that's the exciting part of the game.   

Waaaaggghhhh!!!

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17 hours ago, sporadicMike said:

This! I played in a tournament and had opponents grumble over smashing and bashing. I simply reminded them of their own allegiance abilities. On average I can get it to trigger once or twice per game. 

I can't tell you how many games I've lost because blood tythe points are used to gain advantage when I win a priority roll.  You have sylvaneth players running  through trees, stormcast doing all kinds of things, seraphon dominating board control with teleporting, etc...

Honestly on the scale of things smashing and bashing is actually not even top tier for allegiance abilities. It's good but so conditional, it really requires you to play around it in list building, strategy and tactical gameplay. 

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Just a word to say that the final results are now posted:

http://heraldsofwar.com/documents/cancon-2018-final-results.pdf

Jett was top Destruction in 15th with his Bonesplitterz.  He ran a Kunnin Rukk, but a fairly sporting one (only 30 Arrow Boys).  Allies were an Ironjawz contingent of 5x Brutes, Warchanter and Weirdnob Shaman (with Balewind Vortex, surrounded by Savage Orruks to cast Foot of Gork relatively reliably).

I was 22nd overall (and second highest Destruction) which I was pleased with.

Special mention to Jemma in 50th with perhaps the most aggressive army I've ever seen.  Double Maw Krusha, double Warchanter, all of her battleline were Brutes, and allies were 2x Spear chukkas, 5x Cave Squigs and a Grot Shaman.  All killer, no filler!

I've mentioned the two Spiderfang armies that came in 66 and 72, stoked for Shaun that he won a couple of games which was his stretch target.  

A bit further down we see that 3 of the bottom 5 were Destruction armies.  Pete B's Moonclan was the army I faced in my first game - he was a very competent player but up against it with the army he had unfortunately (no Behemoths which I think he is looking to change).  Also a couple of Beastclaw armies down there too, although one did include 21 Yhetees so bonus points for the Rule of Cool!

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