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

[Chris Tomlin]

Hi guys,

Really trying to squeeze some time to post this week, no only in my only thread but also catch up on all the other great stuff in this sub forum.

So pleased to have that 2nd Grunta unit of my desk. They became somewhat of a nemesis to me as they had been sat there for so so long half done. Now they are finished I am really happy with how they came out and just wish I could photograph models better haha!! I am going to look into lightboxes if anyone has any good suggestions?

For the next two weeks all my hobby time will be sunk into a brand new 1,000 point army for a doubles event me and @Forestreveries are attending, so I need to crack on with that.

After that, I'm not sure what's next. I really feel that the Ardboys are the weak link to my army aesthetically so I am leaning towards finally painting the Bloodbowl conversions I did months ago. The Krunkasaur needs some love as well.

So many options and not enough time for them all!!

On ‎31‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 11:35 PM, Lysandestolpe said:

Nice, dude! These look fantastic.

Thanks man, glad you like them!

On ‎01‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 7:39 AM, Method said:

WOW, stuning.....

I have to paint mine, and this isnt helping Chris.....

really love the bases. have to read through youre post again to see if you explain somewhere how you did those

Cheers dude! Though what element isn't helping?  

Bases are;

• Mournfang Brown
• Strong Tone Ink
• Zamesi Desert
• Screaming Skull
• GW static Grass

The Agrellan Earth patches are drybrushed Zamesi Desert and Screaming Skull to tie in with the rest of the base. I'm quite ****** about the Agrellan Earth and repeatedly scraped it off until I'm happy with the result.

21 hours ago, Nico said:

Great stuff on the Pigs!

Thanks bro....just 12 more to go haha!!

20 hours ago, Sheriff said:

Awesome job on these!

I really prefer the black armour on orcs than this silly yellow trend - those look like highway maintenance orcs. 

Thanks Sheriff! I am actually quite keen on the yellow ones (when done well ala @Ian Gilmore), but am quite partial to my black ones!  

Chris

Edited August 2, 2017 by Chris Tomlin

[Method]

2 hours ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Cheers dude! Though what element isn't helping?  

That I have to start painting mine and my painting skillz arent half as good as yours. So seeing these makes me want to put off the painting even more ;-)

[#SteveJames]

Gore Grunters are looking sweet, that terrain looks very cool too. 

[Blueisola]

Gruntas given proper paint love really are some of the most impressive models in the entire AoS line.  well done, sir!

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning all,

20 hours ago, Method said:

That I have to start painting mine and my painting skillz arent half as good as yours. So seeing these makes me want to put off the painting even more ;-)

Ah man, that's kind, but it's a shame it makes you feel like that. If I see other peoples models that I think are sweet/better than mine etc, I like to chat to them about it, see what they did and generally try to be inspired/motivated by it. Nowadays no one is secretive and everyone likes to share. I had a similar conversation with @DeadlySarcasm a while back.

19 hours ago, #SteveJames said:

Gore Grunters are looking sweet, that terrain looks very cool too. 

Thanks bro! Looking forward to seeing you at the doubles  

12 hours ago, Blueisola said:

Gruntas given proper paint love really are some of the most impressive models in the entire AoS line.  well done, sir!

I agree man, they are great models that a weirdly not helped by GWs photography of them.

So after what seems like months of not playing AoS, I am finally back to report on some games. Obviously with the GH2017 looming, these may not be the most exciting of reports to read, but as I've stated before I am keen to keep a complete record here.
Also in a weird way I was kinda hoping to hit 100 GH games with the Ironjawz (I've played non GH games with Ironjawz and GH games with other armies if that makes sense!), not sure if that will happen now though.

This past weekend was the Element Games Grand Slam (#EGGS) and I was in attendance with my Ironjawz, this was the first time I've played at a Tournament since SCGT in early April and after having my beloved Megabrutes comped at that event I was looking forward to giving them a good run out here (potentially a last run out depending on GH2017),
However, when it came to looking at the pack I was a little dismayed as it appeared they had just inexplicably slapped some of the SCGT stuff in the middle of it!!! No non-Leader Generals...great!!  

I was reasonably happy with what I took to SCGT given the selection of models I have painted, however it was a really tough slog in the Meta and I was often pretty outgunned. I feel like I play the game pretty well and that definitely counts for something and helps me get wins, especially if my opponent underestimates my army. However sometimes there is no answer I can find to some of the stuff out there and, at the risk of sounding awful, I will lose to worse players with better armies.

But hey, it's my choice to field what I do, the same as it is for other people to take their choice of list, so I cannot have any complaints. This is an important point to make.

With that in mind, I knew I'd have to suck it up and accept I'd be in for another tough event as the comp really changes the way I like to play my army. The easy choice would've been to use my SCGT list again, but I thought I'd use the deadline here to finally finish that second unit of Gore-gruntas that had become a fixture at my painting desk for the last few months! As you will have seen from my earlier update this week (new models and battle reports!! It's like 2016 all over again), I was successful in finishing them up and I was really pleased with how they came out in the end. Definitely one of the nicest units in my army. Can’t wait to do 12 more...  

To fit the Gore-gruntas into the list I opted to remove a unit of 5 Brutes. Aesthetically a better choice would've been the Ardboys, but they are too important. The next choice for me was 1x 6 or 2x 3 Gore-gruntas. In the end I just went for 2x3 as I felt I was very short on units and having more options might be useful if I needed to engage multiple shooters etc. I took some advices from @Paul Buckler on board here.

So my list was;

• Megaboss Krunk - Battle Brew
• Pig Benis on Red Cabbage - General, Bellowing Tyrant, Talisman of Protection
• Amy the Weirdnob Shaman
• Warchanter
• 10 Brutes
• 5 Brutes
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 10 Ardboys
• Ironfist

It looks pretty bad on paper...and, well, I guess it is. When I saw the other lists that had been submitted for this event (https://www.facebook.com/events/1858591791084299/permalink/1943904889219655/) I audibly groaned. They were tougher than I expected and I would place mine amongst the weakest lists there.

As I mentioned above, I don't feel like I can really complain as everyone makes their own choices when it comes to lists, but I have to admit I did feel a bit disheartened especially as I wasn't perhaps feeling the most up for this event anyway (a combination of factors, mostly based outside of the hobby that I won't get into here. You guys know I've been quiet on here of late).

In the end, a few friendly pep talks from guys I really wanted to hang out with and the promise of some Final Fantasy TCG, helped me to make the decision to attend regardless of my ill feeling. I accepted I'd be in for another hard SCGT-esque weekend at the table and targeted 2 wins for myself.

Quite a bit more preamble that usual, but it's been a little while since I posted any proper content so I'm ok with that. I'm keen to not sound like a whingy b*tch in any of the above and didn't want to get into things too much, but I think it's important to share a little of the emotional/psychological side of things from time to time.

Anyway, I'll come back with at least the first game, which was (spoilers) a fantastic grudge match vs @Dangermouse425, this week and will target all 5 reports by next Friday.

I am out of the office on Friday doing a charity walk so it may just be the first game we get this week.

Thanks for reading!
Chris

[Mohojoe]

Glad to hear you finally hopped that horrendous spiky hurdle that was your second pig unit. They look fantastic and well worth the effort.
Few snap questions for you

What's the megabrutes unit that you allude to in your thread? I'm guessing it's when you nominate one to be your general but I'm not certain.

I'm currently building a pure ironjawz force myself and though I'm not aiming to win tournaments I want to have as efficient a force as possible. Do you think with (theoretical) point reductions in GHB2 we will see a shift to double Maw Krusha as a staple tournament list for the reliable mortal wound output or do you see army composition changing in another direction? Possibly ally related.

Anyway, always a pleasure to read your threads and listen to the casts. Hope to see you at an event soon, keep up the good work


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[Fungrim]

I may have missed you doing this previously, but would be great if you could ever do tutorials/vids/photos etc on how you did these?

The line-work, muscles, metals, everything, really quite amazing. The weathering as well - I've not even begun trying to weather any of my Ironjawz yet, but would really like to. I've watched various Duncan vids and stuff on YouTube, but seeing how you did it to yours, and your aesthetic, would be ace.

Even a podcast or 2 on it maybe? I know you've done a few hobby ones in the past (remember a very good one with Matt). Anything though really. I for one, envy the skills of our Ironjawz overlord!

(Also, congrats on your time at EGGs, won't spoil this thread, but from the looks of Twitter you didn't fair badly at all!)

[ChippyRick]

Good to see some updates on here mate.

The Goregrunta's look really good, cant wait to see them irl. 

Looking at the EGGS list on paper, it definetly was the right decision to go 2 x 3 Grunta's. The list is quite small on unit numbers and even though i like the idea of the unit of 6, it dont think it would have helped as much. Interested to hear your reports as they get added.

Maybe we could arrange that Game 100 this month before the GHB2017? It could be the rise of Nagash to my nighthauts to face off against the mighty Krunk and Da Black Sunz? I thin Nagash is the appropriate level hero to give it a go (as my archaon keeps falling  ).

[Ollie Grimwood]

It's a good looking unit Chris. Are you planning to use a Gore fist when you get the others finshed?  I know Gore Gruntas aren't the best unit in the world but I reckon it'd be right laugh having them steaming so far across the battlefield in your first turn. 

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning,

22 hours ago, Mohojoe said:

Glad to hear you finally hopped that horrendous spiky hurdle that was your second pig unit. They look fantastic and well worth the effort.
Few snap questions for you

What's the megabrutes unit that you allude to in your thread? I'm guessing it's when you nominate one to be your general but I'm not certain.

I'm currently building a pure ironjawz force myself and though I'm not aiming to win tournaments I want to have as efficient a force as possible. Do you think with (theoretical) point reductions in GHB2 we will see a shift to double Maw Krusha as a staple tournament list for the reliable mortal wound output or do you see army composition changing in another direction? Possibly ally related.

Anyway, always a pleasure to read your threads and listen to the casts. Hope to see you at an event soon, keep up the good work

Haha thanks....1/3 of the way through the overall project now. Strangely right now I'm not feeling totally adverse to the next 3! I'm sure that'd soon change once they are on my desk. I'm enjoying the chance of pace with what I am painting right now though (to be revealed after Brothers of Sigmar doubles event).

- Megabrutes is name I have given to a unit of 15 Brutes which includes a battalion Big Boss as your General. Gives 47 wounds with a 4+ save for your opponent to get through before that Inspiring Presence drops. Tasty.

- I would love for double Cabbage to be a viable build...would certainly give me an excuse to try and convert one some how! Other potential shifts for us could indeed include Allies (giving us access to ranged threats being the number 1 I guess) or perhaps hordes of Ardboys if given a reduction for these sized units. @Sangfroid has been discussing this. Whatever though, it will be cool for things to get mixed up and I look forward to painting up new units. Keeps the army fresh aesthetically as well as from a gaming standpoint.

Thanks for reading/listening. Are you signed up for many events this year?

22 hours ago, Fungrim said:

I may have missed you doing this previously, but would be great if you could ever do tutorials/vids/photos etc on how you did these?

The line-work, muscles, metals, everything, really quite amazing. The weathering as well - I've not even begun trying to weather any of my Ironjawz yet, but would really like to. I've watched various Duncan vids and stuff on YouTube, but seeing how you did it to yours, and your aesthetic, would be ace.

Even a podcast or 2 on it maybe? I know you've done a few hobby ones in the past (remember a very good one with Matt). Anything though really. I for one, envy the skills of our Ironjawz overlord!

(Also, congrats on your time at EGGs, won't spoil this thread, but from the looks of Twitter you didn't fair badly at all!)

Hey man, thanks a lot. I haven't really done anything by way of tutorials I don't think. Could certainly look into doing some step-by-steps or something? The problem is, as I've mentioned before, that my painting is very inefficient. By that I mean I do additional layers etc that probably just aren't worth it in the grand scheme of things. Everything takes ages!! I guess I would say patience is my real skill when it comes to painting as opposed to anything technical. Individually highlighting all the fur on the Gruntas is stupid tbh, the casts are such high definition that they would take a drybrush beautifully. I have nothing against drybrushing, but just can't help myself doing what I do. It has to be said I do prefer the look.

But yeh, in short, it's all just patience really.

Perhaps I could do something podcast related. I'm not always sure how well painting talk comes across as it's such a visual thing. @Cowboy Boots Matt, @Ian Gilmore and @Rob Ellis are starting a new podcast called Pro Painted, so if anyone is going to be able to do it well, it'll be those guys.

Yeh EGGS went pretty well all things considered  

20 hours ago, ChippyRick said:

Good to see some updates on here mate.

The Goregrunta's look really good, cant wait to see them irl. 

Looking at the EGGS list on paper, it definetly was the right decision to go 2 x 3 Grunta's. The list is quite small on unit numbers and even though i like the idea of the unit of 6, it dont think it would have helped as much. Interested to hear your reports as they get added.

Maybe we could arrange that Game 100 this month before the GHB2017? It could be the rise of Nagash to my nighthauts to face off against the mighty Krunk and Da Black Sunz? I thin Nagash is the appropriate level hero to give it a go (as my archaon keeps falling  ).

Cheers man, I forget you wouldn't have seen them what with me leaving the Doggers chat. It's not like they'd be appreciated in there anyway!!

I do really like the unit of 6 tbh, I think it does a good job. However as you say, in this list just getting a second unit down on the table was important IMO.

After EGGS I'm up to 98 GH games with Ironjawz so it would be really nice to round out to 100. If you wanna play one of those games, that'd be great tbh. Haven't played Nagash with them I don't think. We should totally do it.

20 hours ago, Ollie Grimwood said:

It's a good looking unit Chris. Are you planning to use a Gore fist when you get the others finshed?  I know Gore Gruntas aren't the best unit in the world but I reckon it'd be right laugh having them steaming so far across the battlefield in your first turn. 

Hey, cheers man. I have played a couple of games with the Gore-fist for lolz. You can find some reports on an earlier page. When I used it I didn't go full balls out with them...which I think you need to do. If the unit and the battalion gets a reduction in GH2017 it will be a worthwhile choice IMO.

Cheers for all the replies...that took ages haha!!

Might not be able to do EGGS game 1 as well. We'll see!

Chris

[Mohojoe]

Putting the first coats on is lovely, it's all the finicky after care painting that takes its toll. I have three piggies on my table but I have no clue how to even tackle them yet or if I will even put them in a list.

Was that discussion in a separate thread or in this one? Will have to have a search.

I have no events in yet. Sold my 2k gutbusters army after my last event foolishly due to being skint and I'm now working my way into getting 2k of ironjawz. I bought a shaman warband and a start collecting just to get the ball rolling.
Would like to get to blood and glory potentially this year but dependent on when army is ready.
I'm in Norwich so I find most events are a fairly intimidating drive away. Definitely want to get on it though especially with GHB2 on the horizon. That's the impetus to get my orruks going anyway






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[Rivers3162]

Really nice to see the gruntas finished! What is next on the list?

 

Keep up the good work! This thread has inspired me to start my own ironjawz force

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of a follow up, I had really hoped to be getting the reports going, but my workload has not allowed for this. Still a few more days left this week, so fingers crossed I can get something up eh!

On ‎03‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 7:30 PM, Mohojoe said:

Putting the first coats on is lovely, it's all the finicky after care painting that takes its toll. I have three piggies on my table but I have no clue how to even tackle them yet or if I will even put them in a list.

Was that discussion in a separate thread or in this one? Will have to have a search.

I have no events in yet. Sold my 2k gutbusters army after my last event foolishly due to being skint and I'm now working my way into getting 2k of ironjawz. I bought a shaman warband and a start collecting just to get the ball rolling.
Would like to get to blood and glory potentially this year but dependent on when army is ready.
I'm in Norwich so I find most events are a fairly intimidating drive away. Definitely want to get on it though especially with GHB2 on the horizon. That's the impetus to get my orruks going anyway

Yeh I'd be totally lying if I said the Gore-gruntas aren't imposing models from a painting point of view. They are full of detail. If you own them, I would definitely suggest assembling them and having a go. You could make good use of washes and drybrushing to achieve solid results I suspect. Your painting is good anyway man!!

Gore-fist discussion was somewhere in here. Will probably be in the last 5-6 pages I suspect.

Selling an army when you don't have another one painted and ready to go is a bit of a paint, I did it twice early on in Age of Sigmar have sold on Nurgle Daemon and Stormcast armies without a back up. Ooops!

I have a hotel sorted for Blood & Glory but haven't picked up an event ticket yet. If we both end up going maybe we can have a game or something. There's certainly nothing quite like a tournament deadline to get you through painting an army!!

On ‎05‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 8:08 AM, Rivers3162 said:

Really nice to see the gruntas finished! What is next on the list?

Keep up the good work! This thread has inspired me to start my own ironjawz force

Hey man...yeh I agree, very nice to see them finished haha!! Next up from an Ironjawz point of view will probably be my Blood Bowl Ardboy conversions I think. Though more Gruntas and the Krunkasaur are more pressing requirements, being that I need them for RAW.

Thanks so much for your super kind comment at the end there. Means a lot and is literally my favourite thing to hear. Really nice if someone else can get a kick out of this stuff and be inspired  

Cheers,

Edited August 8, 2017 by Chris Tomlin

[Chris Tomlin]

Afternoon all,

So I've done my usual thing of delaying battle reports on here and then releasing a podcasting talking about them!! You can find that episode here, please check it out for some extra detail and thoughts on all the games;

I will quick give a rundown of the games for the record here as well. I guess in some ways it wouldn't really be overly necessary to go into all that much detail with the GH2017 round the corner...not that I'm trying to justify it or anything! But in all seriousness, I would much rather that I had the time this week to be writing nice full reports as opposed to working!!
Anyway, list and what not are above, so I can crack straight in;

Game 94 - Element Games Grand Slam - Round One vs Dan Mitchell @Dangermouse425 (Moonclan)
This was a prearranged grudged. Dan is a really nice guy who I'd never had the opportunity to play in a matched play singles game. Usually well known for taking some pretty interesting builds featuring uncommon factions, I was a little disappointed to see that Dan had turned to the ways of the netlisting bandwagoner as he rocked up with a filthy Moonclan list, no doubt trying to replicate the success of the GT Heat 3 winner!
His list was a Warboss, 2 Shaman, 3 units of Grots w/ Fanatics, Squigs, Herders, 2 Manglers and 2 Colossal. The Battleplan was new Escalation, which meant his 4 Behemoths and the Cabbage would be taking up the rear-guard. In theory this is a good battleplan for me with all my units being Battleline, however needed the buffs from the leaders, especially the Inspiring Presence meant I had to hang fire a little bit.
We both considered that given average play and dice on both sides, Dan's list would likely come out on top unless I could get the drop on the big squigs before they hit me. This is tricky as the Fanatics are a real problem and I have no cheap way to draw them out. As it was, Mystical terrain helped me a little early doors as Dan failed a couple of key rolls. Whilst the big Squigs rolled well for their first random moves, the dice pretty much abandoned them for the rest of the game as they moved slowly and hit poorly. Oops!
As per standard for me in this Battleplan, I like to split my army and go after the two side objectives, as it was this worked out pretty well. I did manage to get a long charge with a unit of Gore-gruntas in the Moonclan Warboss early on (was only aiming for an easy charge on a Shaman so this was a bonus). Whilst they struggle to put out reliable damage, the squishy 4 wound Grot General was easily crushed under hoof and gored to death, removing that powerful double damage command ability (I was very fearful of a buffed Behemoth going into any of my units).
Due to the aforementioned combination of poor random move rolls and Mystical terrain I was able to pick off his Behemoths one at a time, with 10 Brutes reliably being able to delete them. The Cabbage had got stuck into the centre of his army and did a good distractionary job whilst I racked up the points on the sides. He eventually died to a single attack from the remainder Squig Herder, embarrassingly poked in his nether regions!! Cue high five!!
But yeh, long story short, all the 50/50 decisions & dice in the game just tipped in my favour. No crazy big spikes at any one point, just consistently slightly my way. This resulted in me getting up heavily on the objectives & also being able to take off Dan's army for a massive win. It was a good natured, relaxed game that was played by us both to a decent level I feel. I can't claim any great tactical acumen on my part, it was a reasonably well matched game I felt. As I say just had a bit more luck than Dan on the day.
Result - Major Victory

Game 95 - Element Games Grand Slam - Round Two vs Darran Palmer @Darran (Destruction)
Darran's list was very strong with a Frostlord on Stonehorn, Huskard on Thundertusk, Savage Orruk Big Boss, Moonclan Shaman, Kunnin' Rukk, 60 Grots, 20 Grots etc. etc. This was Border War, probably my favourite battleplan.
I talk about this game a lot on the podcast because of the unique nature of it (this isn't something I've ever done before in AoS). Essentially though, I conceded at the start of Turn 2 as the game was unfortunately a non-event. I can convey my feelings and reasons for this much better by talking, I just tried to type something but it didn't come across well.
I was not upset, annoyed or anything like that. It was just one of those things. After a good win round one I was up on table 1, so you've got to expect to play good players with good lists. My only negative feeling towards this is that I couldn't give Darran a good game and show him that I'm the player I believe I am. Certainly no hard feelings towards Darran or his list and I wouldn't want my words construed that way.
Result - Major Loss

Game 96 - Element Games Grand Slam - Round Three vs David Allen (Sylvaneth)
As any long term reader of this thread will know, I have played Sylvaneth more than any other army and whilst there have been a couple of bad results along the way (especially in Places of Power, which this was!), my overall record is pretty strong. This was Dave's first tournament and he was packing the Drycha variant of the Coldplay netlist (you know the one!). I suspect that I probably knew his army better than him and was able to teach him a trick or two along the way (including people circumventing the deadly check for charging Wyldwoods but stopping 1/2 inch away outside and then piling into the wood).
This one just went really well for me tbh. I played to the Battleplan and ensured I started scoring early doors whilst Dave's lack of experience had him hold back on the characters. I racked up a 10-0 without many threats to my leaders as I used all my other units really offensive to hold him off. I managed to take down the Branchwych and Drycha meaning he wouldn't be able to catch me on the objective. We both acknowledged that and Dave suggested he'd play it differently in future, which was nice to hear. At that point we were able to have a bit of a mash up and his 6 Scythe Hunters single handily accounted for about 1500pts of my army!! Crazy!
Last turn I got a Foot of Gork off on his full health Treelord Ancient, I managed to hit the 4+ 3 times for a total of 4D6 mortal wounds!! Impressive...alas, the Treelord remained on a wound at the end of it as my rolls on the D6 were pretty terrible. So close to an awesome story. Really fun game though and a great end to the day. I caught up with Dave on the Sunday and it seemed like he was really enjoying his weekend.
Result - Major Victory

Game 97 - Element Games Grand Slam - Round Four vs Chris Welfare (Stormcast Eternals)
Having played mixed Destruction and Sylvaneth, I knew a match vs Stormcast was on the cards to complete my standard Tournament trifecta! I was actually incredibly pleased with this draw as Chris was visiting his homeland from Australia where he now resides. Chris was one of the friendliest people I'd met in a long time and made the effort to introduce himself to everyone on the Friday which was cool. I always think it's nice to be drawn against someone visiting from overseas as you never know when you'll get the chance again, if ever. Not only this, but Chris had a super cool Stormcast list featuring the Tempest Lords Vanguard Wing battalions, which allows Prosecutors to roll their 3D6 charge and not have to complete a successful charge, giving them some insane flexible movement. His list was Castellant, 2 Heraldors, Azyros, Prime, 2 Fulminators, 2x 5 Judicators and then all the Prosecutors. We were playing Gift from the Heavens and start off a little cautiously. Chris had deployed very deep as he feared me getting into him fast, making a mess and forcing the early Prime drop. His Scions units seems to all drop at about the right time in a good succession of waves. Once my comet dropped I charged the Cabbage into the 2 Fulminators, expecting to kill one early doors and either grind them out or force the retreat. Obviously with the Heraldors this is less of an issue to him and as it was the Destructive Bulk did just 2 wounds and I got no further wounds through. Ouch!!
I also had 5 Brutes do just 3 wounds to 3 Prosecutors over 2 rounds of combat (including one with a Warchanter buff) which was frankly ridiculous. Turn 2 I was able to stop Chris scoring his objective as it dropped near my Gore-gruntas. I was thinking that this would probably be the game to be honest, but my confidence was ill placed.
From the point there was a sort of snowball effect as the game got away from me. It should be said upfront the Chris played very well, in an almost clinical fashion and really made the most of the small measures of bad luck I had. He was able to pile 2 units of Prosecutors and the Azyros on my objective turn 4, as my Brutes had done such a poor job earlier I was left with a lot of bodies to clear, resulting in having to split attacks...which never works out! He whittled the Cabbage down so that when the Prime dropped turn 3 he only needed to squeeze through 3 unsaved wounds to take it off, which he did (I'm pretty sure I convinced him to do this by mistake haha!!). We ended up with Krunk trying and failing to kill the Prime before getting taken down as well.
So yeh, come the end of the game I was totally out of it and I think may have even been tabled. It was a strange sort of game as even though it went so badly, if we went again now I would still be confident. It's a very interesting matchup and was a lot of fun. I was pleased for Chris to get the win as his play warranted it and he went on to take 3rd place!! (This is the one game that really suffers from the lack of a full report as soooo much happened)
Result - Major Loss

Game 98 - Element Games Grand Slam - Round Five vs @Tom Hewitt (Stormcast Eternals)
If I was pleased with my round four draw, I was ecstatic about my fifth! Tom is a friend of mine and was our driver for the weekend. Despite knowing and hanging out with Tom for probably a couple of years now, we'd never actually played (save for an awful doubles game at RAW16!). I'm someone that usually bemoans having to play Warhammer on the Sunday of an event, but my draws here had been top notch. Tom had kept me entertained all weekend with loads off FFTCG and his alter ego #TournamentTom #LADS so playing him was a great end to the weekend
Tom also had Stormcast, but his list was totally different to the one Chris was using. He had a Drakesworn Templar, Castellant, Gryph Hound, Celestant on Dracoth, Heraldor, 2x 5 Liberators, 2x 3 Prosecutors, 2x 2 Fulminators and 5 Judicators; think that's it? We were ending on Blood & Glory. On the Podcast version of this report I talk in more detail about my issues with this particular Battleplan and the potential for it to end after one player has only has two turns.
You may notice there is next to no mention of Krunk in the reports here. This is due to him having an incredibly quiet weekend! To try and round it out in style I chose to charge him solo into the 10 Liberators that had appeared behind my lines due to some sloppy first turn movement (I kept messing up my positioning with the Cabbage and had to use Destruction moves to get Inspiring Presence), he killed just a single Liberator before being taken down. Embarrassing. Lay Low the Tyrants indeed!! Before that, I had lost my Shaman to 3 super strength javelins from a unit of Prosecutors, strong start for Tom.
I had decided to stay away from the Stardrake as it does bad things to Brutes and the Cabbage can't inflict enough damage on it, so the Cabbage went marauding on the other side of the table. He went to try his luck at 2 Fulminators (to make amends for last game) but instead rolled well for his charge so opted for the Heraldor instead. Destructive Bulk finally came good as he squashed the horn wielder flat! He then charged again, into the Fulminators, squashed one with the Bulk and took down the other straight away. Next turn he fly back down the table and repeated his previous feat by finishing a Fulminator unit (6 mortal wounds on Destructive Bulk) and then charging into the Celestant on Dracoth and killing him!! Not a bad return for 2 combat phases!!
On the other side it was all a bit standoffish. I had a chance to auto win the game by winning T3 priority, but shunned it. I wasn't keen on the abruptness of it when having a great game with a mate. Various other things went down and it looked like I'd win a Minor for having 3 objectives, however right at the end I was able to use the unit of 10 Brutes to charge into the Castellant and claim the 4th objective and win Major. This feat did require me getting 18 on 4D6 (Rampaging Destroyers, Ironfist + Charge), so was an entertaining way to end. Was nice to see Tom's level of play really coming along as well. Much like my game vs Dan I'd have to admit I had the rub of the green here. Still, Tom seemed to enjoy seeing the Cabbage at its best!
Result - Major Victory

So overall I ended up coming 13th out of 36 players. Not too shabby with that list in that field if I do say so myself! More importantly though I was able to pick up Best Painted Army in a field that was as strong as the lists, so that was really nice. I think this can be attributed in part down to the additional work on the Shaman, Krunk's new arm and of course the second unit of Gore-gruntas. It's really important for me to continue adding to and improving the army to give people who have seen it loads a reason to keep looking (and hopefully voting). After a super successful 2016, I don't think I've had a painting win this year (although I've not played many events) so this felt great. Thanks to anyone who voted.
The trophy was really nice and I got some awesome prize support, including £50 store credit which I promptly blew on a Balewind Vortex and a bunch more FFTCG packs. All in all I really enjoyed the weekend, the podcast goes into the event in general a lot more whereas I'm only really talking about me here.

Phew! That's still ended up a really long post haha  

Anyway, thanks for reading!
Chris

[Malakithe]

Hey @Chris Tomlin whats your take on these guys for conversion...

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Blood-bowl-orcland-raiders-team-2017

And I saw those earlier BB conversions. They are the right size for Ardboys right?

[Titcher]

Hey Chris, that  a fantastic right up, I think it's testimony to you  playing skills and knowledge of the game that you continue to place high with a maybe weaker army. 

Are you planning to run ironjaws after gh 2017 or starting something fresh?

[Charles]

I really enjoy the game write ups, this was very good. Thanks for taking the time man.

When I finish my table and get my Khorne Army in the field I look forward to writing a history as well.

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning all,

My excitement for Ironjawz has just hit an all time high...I can't wait to share it with you very soon!

On ‎12‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 7:52 PM, Malakithe said:

Hey @Chris Tomlin whats your take on these guys for conversion...

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Blood-bowl-orcland-raiders-team-2017

And I saw those earlier BB conversions. They are the right size for Ardboys right?

Yeh I think they look great tbh. Was thinking of picking them up myself actually. The Blood Bowl Orcs are a little smaller than Ardboys, but work perfectly in the role.

On ‎12‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 8:39 PM, Titcher said:

Hey Chris, that  a fantastic right up, I think it's testimony to you  playing skills and knowledge of the game that you continue to place high with a maybe weaker army. 

Are you planning to run ironjaws after gh 2017 or starting something fresh?

Thanks man, that's very kind. I do actually think playing with Ironjawz so much has probably improved my overall play as the army definitely does not carry you.

I actually won a tournament last weekend with Disciples of Tzeentch, but we don't talk about that here haha!!

I will 100% be sticking with the Ironjawz in GH2017. It's going to be a lot of fun indeed I can promise you that!!

On ‎12‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 9:01 PM, Charles said:

I really enjoy the game write ups, this was very good. Thanks for taking the time man.

When I finish my table and get my Khorne Army in the field I look forward to writing a history as well.

Thanks for reading Charles, glad you liked in man. I look forward to reading about your army when it has it's first battle! Be sure to share a link with me  

Not much in terms on hobby progress of late, but I did fully assemble and undercoat the awesome Mini Monsters terrain I recently received. It's so so cool and I'm really looking forward to painting it up. I do have some 20% voucher codes for Mini Monsters, so if you're definitely going to order from them, send me a DM and I'll sort you out. It really is great stuff!

Chris

[Fungrim]

1 hour ago, Chris Tomlin said:

I actually won a tournament last weekend with Disciples of Tzeentch, but we don't talk about that here haha!!

I for one, am shocked and appalled..... 

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning all,

Time to breathe some life back into this thread with GH2017 goodness!
As some of you may know I am super busy with various things at present (I think whinging about being super busy is probably one of the things making me super busy!) so I'm not getting much chance to paint or play, with most of my spare "hobby" time going into podcasting right now. Things should level out a bit from 13th September, which will give me 2 1/2 weeks to paint something new for the Facehammer GT at the end of the month.

My event, BLACKOUT, is this weekend. To be honest I'm pretty gutted I can't play in it as it's going to be so exciting to have 80+ players battling it out over the new GH2017 battleplans for the first time. Instead, I will be living vicariously through @Sangfroid who will be my Champion for the weekend! I know TOs aren't meant to have favourites, but whatever, I want to see Kieran do us all proud!

Anyway, I have managed to squeeze in a couple of games under the GH2017 so far. Whilst work is super busy (having all these short weeks is all well and good, but it just means I have to do 5 days’ worth of work in 3 days etc!), I've still managed to turn the pad of paper at my desk into what is essentially an army roster pad! So so many ideas with the GH2017 changes, I literally didn't know where to start. I do have some ideas on which may be the way to go in terms of "best" lists, but truth be told until I play all the battleplans multiple times and gauge how the opposing armies all work now, I just don't know. So, instead of fretting over that, I thought a good place to start would just be with something cool, different and fun. I present to you;

MSU Bloodtoof Brutes

• Krunk - Destroyer
• Pig Benis on Cabbage - General, Ironclad, Dabs
• Weirdnob - Boss Skewer
• Warchanter
• Ironfist // Bloodtoofs
• 5x 5 Brutes

There we go! It's a bit silly I know, but after moaning endlessly about Battleshock before I couldn't help myself. I do think that an MSU Brute approach is actually a reasonable way to tackle the Bloodtoof battalion. This makes fantastic use of the global +2 Bravery (+3 if within 12" of the Shaman during the Battleshock Phase). You also get the most out of your Boss Klaws & Smashas, which is nice. Mine were equipped with Choppas x3 and Hackas x2, purely down to models owned.

Whilst I think Bestial Charisma is really good (and will be my go to Command Trait in some builds) it is not needed here. Brutish Cunning is possibly more useful than Ironclad and I'll definitely want to try that out as well. I do genuinely love how we have a variety of viable options now, so that fit different army builds better. We're in a great place IMO boyz. As I have lost my personal sips of Battle Brew, I need some other in game thing to interact with; enter the sweet dabs of Mork. Popping a dab every time you roll that 6 will be mildly entertaining (to me, anyway!)...and actually, it's just pretty good on a 14 wound model as you're likely to get a couple of saves in there over the course of the game.

Krunk is a weird one for me...I actually think the foot Megaboss may have been the biggest loser for us in this Handbook. I'm just not sure he is quite worth his points, though I believe he does get the Mighty Destroyers +2 bonus even if not your General (don't have book to hand) which is decent. Still, the option of Rend -2 or Damage 3 are both juicy, but now we are back to 3+/3+ on our attacks they are way less reliable. I think in the above list I'd be better off buddying up the 2 5 man Hacka units to a hench 10 pack, dropping my boy Krunk and bringing in a unit of Gruntas. That's worth a look in.

All that said, I'm not sure if Bloodtoofs is the way to go. It is really good and, spoiler, I didn't fail a battleshock across the 2 games, which is lovely! I just think losing 300 points worth of actual models is rough and you're really requiring the units you've got to do some heavy lifting.

There's undoubtedly some real benefits to be had from drafting in some Allies, but taking Bloodtoofs does greatly prohibit that if you want any characters. You also can't overlook the massive regiment of Ardboys, which is probably going to be a common choice in Ironjawz armies going forward I suspect. 60 wounds with a natural 4+ save is nothing to be sniffed at and I really wish I'd put the hours in to paint more already as I'd love to be able to whack them down right away.

There's plenty to think about going forward and it's going to be super exciting to see all the different builds people come up with from the get go.

Let's take a quick look over the first two games. It's kind of a shame I wasn't able to hit 100 with the last Handbook, but oh well...

Game 99 - Knife to the Heart vs Matt Lyons @Cowboy Boots Matt (Nurgle)
This was an utterly rough first match up, Matt's army was the Glottkin, Lord of Plagues, Rotbringer Sorcerer, Champion on Daemonic Mount, 30 Plaguebearers and 4x 5 Blightkings in the Blightguard Battalion. This battleplan pitches the armies only 18" apart and I couldn't really sit off as I'd just invite him onto my objective. This is problematic as with Cunning Deceiver it meant that early combats would see me at -2 to hit the Blightkings, which was horrible. He left the 30 Plaguebearers on his objective (in hindsight we both agreed he could've got away with 5 Kings back there and just pushed the wall of death at me) so it was quite apparent that I was never going to be winning this game, even a Minor would be tricky due to the tar pit nature of his units...especially as his healing rolls were off the charts. There's not really much worth commenting on, it was a fun game but was certainly a case of skating uphill. The Cabbage popped 4/6 dabs early doors which was fun, but eventually got ground off as did the rest of my army. Inexplicably Matt even managed to get the Major Victory, which was disappointing.
My thoughts on the battleplan are that it is probably better than Take and Hold (bore draw to quote @Paul Buckler), but will likely just be played as a kill mission for the most part. I suspect it's still the one that will be skipped in 5 game Tournaments.
Result - Major Defeat

Game 100 - Scorched Earth vs Matt Clarke @Gmac2610 (Stormcast Eternals)
Oh man, another potentially tough match up vs another Matt. Mr Clarke was rocking a pretty tasty Aetherstrike Force back up by Fulminators. The battleplan is fantastic, but was a struggle for my list as 3 of my 5 Brute units would have to stay back babysitting my objectives.
Again, to not get too much into the little details, I was able to weather the early shooting reasonably well with the exception of losing my Shaman before I had a turn. Ironclad was worth its weight in gold here vs all the Rend -1 shooting (conversely it did literally nothing vs Matt L). I also had some early luck with the Fulminators failing a charge which bought me an extra turn with my left hand objective.
I was able to get the Cabbage stuck right in to the middle objective on turn 2, the +2 charge was amazing for helping him get that pie plate base into a good position and I also got two units of Brutes stuck in this turn. I used Smashing and Bashing to great effect, chaining all 3 units...however, Aetherstrike Force is a near perfect counter as whilst he couldn't fight between my attacks, he was able to deliver a round of shooting in-between each one which was even more effective. Hard times!!
Had I won the priority for Turn 3 I believe I would've had a large chance to win this game as I likely would've claimed (and burnt) two of his objectives. As it was the Fulminators got stuck in and took one of mine, whilst Matt pumped everything he had left into the Maw-krusha and finally took it off. I had made one mistake this game in that on my right objective I actually could've gotten away with leaving my Warchanter there out of harm’s way, which would've given me another unit of valuable Brutes to fight with.
As it was, it was a really close game in the end. We both killed a lot of each other’s armies, however even with all his shooting finally taken down, having his Leaders and 4 Fulminators left alive, Matt would've still won a Minor on a tie I suspect. It did finish 17-14 to Matt in the end, but was very close and totally winnable for me IMO. I have to say this is a fantastic battleplan! Can't wait to play it again.
Result - Major Defeat

So not the best results to start my GH2017 gaming, but two really fun, albeit hard, games regardless. As mentioned the second one was definitely winnable, however the first really wasn't (though a Minor Defeat would be my expected result tbh). The army was fun to use and tbh I had no real expectation of it given that I'd opted to try something for fun rather than power. The Cabbage was great overall, really enjoyed using him. Krunk did nothing in either game (much like his last run of games prior to this book), so maybe he needs a rest? The Realmgate didn't come into play in either game.

Sorry the reports are a bit vague, that's all I have time for now. Hope you enjoyed anyway, plenty more to come though over the next week months!

Chris

[Nico]

Great bat reps as ever!

Krunk enters the Durthu land of "nothing more reliable than 3+, 3+...."

 

[Method]

2 hours ago, Chris Tomlin said:

though I believe he does get the Mighty Destroyers +2 bonus even if not your General

Book says:

Add 2 to the roll for your general if they are a MEGABOSS.

So I guess not

[Chris Tomlin]

1 hour ago, Nico said:

Great bat reps as ever!

Krunk enters the Durthu land of "nothing more reliable than 3+, 3+...."

Cheers man. Dark times for Krunk, he's finding sobriety tough.

8 minutes ago, Method said:

Book says:

Add 2 to the roll for your general if they are a MEGABOSS.

So I guess not

Ah thanks, saves me checking later! I forgot to do this for even my General in both games anyway, really worth remembering on the General though.

One thing I forgot to mention in my game vs @Gmac2610 was that the Cabbage didn't just die normally to the SCE shooting...the Venator did 9 wounds with his Star-fated Arrow!! When does that happen?! Never! Was pretty awesome tbh.

[Fungrim]

19 hours ago, Chris Tomlin said:

the Venator did 9 wounds with his Star-fated Arrow!! When does that happen?! Never! Was pretty awesome tbh.

 In this vein, I feel compelled to report my cabbage did 7 mortal wounds with its bulk the other day...! Sadly it was against some Bloodreavers, and he  was subsequently counter-charged by a horde of bloodletters who killed him in one turn...... but hey!

Great to see the reports back on this thread mate, keep them coming. All the best with Blackout! Had hoped to come, but the travel/accom ended up being a bit too pricey, especially with Finals round the corner. Hope all goes well!

Edited August 31, 2017 by Fungrim

[Sangfroid]

Great posts again @Chris Tomlin Da Ghostwulfz will carry the flag for all da ladz this weekend even if that flag ends up getting trampled underfoot the hordes of filth ;-) 

Bloodtoof is amazing I've been trying to look at it as a cost of 140 not 300 as Ironfist is even more important now we have lost the destruction move (well guaranteed one) 

however I will say the replacement Mighty destroyers is pretty amazing having used it to charge 2 times and pile in once :-)