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

[Mitzy]

3 hours ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Hey guys,

Urgh, slipped to page two!!  

Well, as you've noticed there have been no updates this week. I've experienced a bit of hobby burn out and have basically taken the week off everything Warhammer related after another mad rush to finish up stuff for a tournament event last weekend.

Pretty sure I'll be back next week to continue the catch up and contribute to the other topics in here.

Maybe see you Megabosses on Monday!

Just tried to like this post, but I'm all out of likes for the day WTF... Anyway great to have you back on Da Black Sunz wagon mate, keep them piggies rollin' Mitzy x

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning,

Hope you're all feeling like Megabosses and not grumpy Monday Maw-krushas?! I know which camp I fall in!!  

Few replies, then will crack into todays business...

On ‎18‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 2:16 PM, Nico said:

Gratz on 1,000 posts Megaboss!

Thanks Nico! Gratz on a good performance this past weekend. Your army looked great as well. Love your Cabbage!

On ‎18‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 2:32 PM, The Nameless One said:

Halfway through the latest episode - am basking in my new found fame! ?

Haha!! Hope you enjoyed the ep man  

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 10:45 AM, Forestreveries said:

6 games of FEC will do that to a Megaboss!

 ...you're telling me!!

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 1:00 PM, Mitzy said:

Just tried to like this post, but I'm all out of likes for the day WTF... Anyway great to have you back on Da Black Sunz wagon mate, keep them piggies rollin' Mitzy x

I'll let you off, I guess. Used two units of Gore-gruntas in an 800 point game yesterday. They were suitably rubbish. Even put the Warchanter on them and the pigs themselves rolled 2 hits and no wounds (12 dice, 3+, 4+) one phase...utterly ridiculous. That was even with your nice dice! REFUND!!  

Right then,

I'm back! Now I'll admit, I have been in two minds whether to continue this thread. It's been fun to chronicle my games and thoughts thus far, but if I'm honest I'm not overly sure of the worth of it and it does take a lot of time! I'm not saying this in the hope that you guys reply telling me its great etc. I know some of you check in and read the posts, which is great and I really appreciate that  

Anyway, I've decided that I'm going to persevere for now. It would certainly be nice to finish the year off with having this as a complete record of all my General's Handbook games with the Ironjawz in 2016. Also, please don't mistake this for me falling out of love with the army or anything - if anything it's the opposite. I love looking at my Flesh-eater Courts, which you can check out here, but they are not as fun at all;

So, lets get back to it;

Game 26 - Warchiefs GT - Round Four vs Nigel Chorlton @Nigehelm (Chaos)

If you remember from above, the TO's had taken the GH battleplans and given them a little tweak. This was Escalation, with the tweak being a Slaaneshi one; for every unit out of combat from Turn 2, you had to roll a dice and on a 1 they moved D6" in a direction of your opponents choosing. Pretty cool.
Nige's army was a super fun one I thought; Archaon, Mighty Lord of Khorne, 2x 10 Nurgle Warriors, 10 Plaguebearers, 9 Trolls and a Hellcannon. That does not seem a lot when I write it down, but I'm pretty sure that's it?

This game was a good example of what @TalesOfSigmar said above. I had to drip feed my units on, unsupported, whilst Nige was able to bring on Archaon to support his 3 small Battleline units T2. He had played a very defensive T1, knowing that my battleline was superior. Whilst this let me get on the objectives earlier doors, it did mean that he didn't throw any of his units away, which was pretty helpful in the latter turns.
As well as Archaon, the Trolls came out to play and went for my Ardboys on the left flank. Being the nice sort of guy I am, I reminded Nige they were near some Damned terrain so could take +1 to hit and then regen the wounds suffered. This made them absolutely disgusting (shooting as much as combat) and whilst they went into the Ardboys with 10 Warriors, suffice to say the Warriors did not need to swing a blow as the Trolls had deleted my boyz!
On the right, we had Gore-gruntas fail mystical terrain and have a complete spesh off vs Plaguebearers. This was fine as they were blocking off the right objective which I had 5 Brutes sat on.
The Hellcannon had rolled on and just took off 3/10 Brutes in the centre. Urgh. Archaon had failed his Mystic Shield but went into the remaining Brutes regardless. After the dust had cleared from all his and Dorghar's attacks, they had slewn one whole Brute...OMG!! My eyes lit up here, as although I was unbuffed I thought I could put down some real hurt due to the lack of Mystic Shield, however I only managed to put 5 wounds on the Grand Marshal of the Apocolypse.
Bad times, which got worse. I have said countless times on this forum that your big unit of Brutes needs Inspiring Presence and man does it! Due to the 4 casualties, terrain effects, the Hellcannon (and does Archaon reduce Bravery, can't remember?) my Bravery was reduced to 0 and I went and popped the 6 for Nige...TAKE THEM OFF! Ouch. Perhaps I was too agressive with them, but this really hurt.
I was really up against it at that point as Archaon could sit pretty on the central one with the Trolls on the left. The Hellcannon wanted to fire at the Brutes on the right, but he rolled a 1 one turn so I was able to move them D6" in the opposite direction, which just got me out of the cannons huge range. Instead, he fired at the mighty Megaboss Krunk turns 3, 4 and 5...turns 3 and 4 saw him roll literally 4 ones to hit as Krunk laughed it off. However he finally went down to the relentless barrage last turn. Booo!!!
Gone a bit out of order here, but before Krunk went down, he and the Cabbage had gone off and dealt with the Trolls, leaving the Ardnob to walk onto that objective turn 5 (he failed the Slaanesh roll turn 4). I cant exactly remember what happened on the far right objective to be honest, I know the Mighty Lord of Khorne got involved, but anyway...that was all irrelevant.

We'd worked it out and it would all come down to one thing. If the Cabbage could charge and kill Archaon (who had Mystic Shield up) in the last turn, we'd tie the Major and I'd get him on the Minor (VP's). I had two big big swigs of Battle Brew (in game, and in real life!), managed to just get in range to scream and popped off another 5 wounds. Good start!! I rolled my charge dice, needing an 8 to get in...........

Unfortunately it was not to be and a came up short (rolled something rubbish and not even close...anticlimatic), so shook Nigel's hand.
Great game. I suspect I made a mistake being too aggressive early doors, I do think waiting for my characters may have helped. Though conversely he would've been able to score even quicker, so I dunno. Interesting and either way, I was still in it right until the end. I was actually shaking a bit when I was getting ready to roll the Cabbage's charge dice. As it was, we rolled out the combat anyway and I left Archaon on one wound, which would probably have been more annoying...especially as he splatted the Cabbage in return (it was alreadu wounded FYI).

Result - Major Loss

I know it's a bit vague there in places, but covers off the main points I think. It was really great to play Nige, I'd seen him about at plenty of events and he always looks like he's having fun. Was no different this game. It felt really winnable. Next time Nige, next time!!

That's your lot for today. I am actually back painting Orruks Orcs this week; cracking into the Bloodbowl version of Da Black Sunz. Such great sculpts! I haven't done any conversions for my Bloodbowl team, but have already collected another Orc team so that I can play around with some Ardboys conversions in the future. Will defo work IMO and if anyone is getting rid of their Orc team, drop me a DM, I'll buy em.
Cheers guys, nice to be posting again

Chris x

Edited November 28, 2016 by Chris Tomlin

[Nico]

Quote

Few replies, then will crack into todays business...

On 11/18/2016 at 2:16 PM, Nico said:

Gratz on 1,000 posts Megaboss!

Thanks Nico! Gratz on a good performance this past weekend.

Thanks so much. 

If you said to someone that you would be going to be facing the following armies before the event:

• Mourngul list (with a Bravery 4 army);
• Beastclaw Raiders plus Kunning Rukk;
• Beastclaw Raiders plus Kunning Rukk, plus Moonclan; plus Spiderfang (kudos to South London Legion clubmate Alex Clark on fitting that into 2,000 points);
• Nurgle Tallyband;
• Beastclaw Raiders plus Moonclan plus Gitmob on Take and Hold (160 Grots vs my 109);
• Beastclaw Raiders plus Kunning Rukk, 

they would probably run for the hills. In fact, every game was phenomenal - normally I find that at least one game is predictable from the outset, but all of these were cliff hangers - rested on good decisions or mistakes of opponents or me. Great opponents all of you (Craig Chester, the Godfather of Beastclaw himself Paul Whitehead, South London Legion's own Alex Clark and @Leonardas; Darran Palmer and Paul Haley)! I think you all enjoyed seeing what the Nasty Skulkers could do and how Gordrakk hits like a cabbage/pillow.

Quote

Your army looked great as well. Love your Cabbage!

Really means a lot to get compliments from better painters than me. Thank you. Your Cabbage/Army is a masterpiece. While I remember thanks to Steve Wren and Jack Armstrong for saying such nice things about the army.

If like me you've only been painting since AoS came out (and are a tad clumsy), then you can get a headstart with zenithal highlighting followed by a Badger Minitaire Ghost Tint (I couldn't believe how good the Cabbage and more recently the Magmadroth looked after just those two steps), then a wash, then a drybrush, then a glaze with a lighter colour (e.g. Guilliman Blue), then another lighter Drybrush, then edge highlighting. Basically watch loads of the Hobby Cheating Videos from Vince Venturella on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgptSaRLvd1QH0SURdQNYgg

We'll have to have a Cabbage-off one day - I suspect that Gordrakk will lose to your Cabbage and will definitely lose to Megaboss Krunk - I strongly doubt he killed his 700 points across all of the six games aggregated.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Nico

[Soulsmith]

Great read Chris. Sounds like a great game. I look forward to your BB team, I am planning myself on magnetising some of the hands so I can replace them with weapons for use as ardboyz - the thrower is getting a boar boy spear, the pose i perfect.

[Nico]

Quote

I'm back! Now I'll admit, I have been in two minds whether to continue this thread. It's been fun to chronicle my games and thoughts thus far, but if I'm honest I'm not overly sure of the worth of it and it does take a lot of time! I'm not saying this in the hope that you guys reply telling me its great etc. I know some of you check in and read the posts, which is great and I really appreciate that  

Anyway, I've decided that I'm going to persevere for now. It would certainly be nice to finish the year off with having this as a complete record of all my General's Handbook games with the Ironjawz in 2016. Also, please don't mistake this for me falling out of love with the army or anything - if anything it's the opposite. I love looking at my Flesh-eater Courts, which you can check out here, but they are not as fun at all;

I certainly enjoy this thread and I'm sure many others do too. I've been doing my battle reports every week for some time now and it's great when you get feedback on it. Cannot wait to do the ones on Blood & Glory.

At the very least, you can reread them yourself and look at the photos in a years time to rekindle the alcohol nuked memories.... That's one reason I do them.

Quote

Nige's army was a super fun one I thought

Was great to meet Nigel at Blood and Glory for the first time (I think we've been at the same events before but haven't crossed paths previously). Always good to meet a fellow member of the Unhelpfully large bases and Overcosted Centrepieces Club. His army looked sweet. Love how he is trolling people with Crom the Conquerbargain.

So looking forward to the watching the Livestream while assembling the Green Bay Packmasters (shame it's not original - but at least I thought of it independently) - especially South London Legion's Max winning on the top table in the last round and beating a 14 year old genius there too.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Nico

[LortOlle]

1 hour ago, Chris Tomlin said:

I'm back! Now I'll admit, I have been in two minds whether to continue this thread. It's been fun to chronicle my games and thoughts thus far, but if I'm honest I'm not overly sure of the worth of it and it does take a lot of time! I'm not saying this in the hope that you guys reply telling me its great etc. I know some of you check in and read the posts, which is great and I really appreciate that  

Anyway, I've decided that I'm going to persevere for now. It would certainly be nice to finish the year off with having this as a complete record of all my General's Handbook games with the Ironjawz in 2016. Also, please don't mistake this for me falling out of love with the army or anything - if anything it's the opposite. I love looking at my Flesh-eater Courts, which you can check out here, but they are not as fun at all;

I understand that it is a lot of work typing up the whole battle report like you do but it does help to read your perspective on things that is uncommon in my own meta and situations I haven't run in to yet.

You might not need to be so through, for your own sanities sake, but keep the unexpected or rare situations. 

[Sangfroid]

Looking good so far Megaboss, I agree about the inspiring presence on the brutes and to heartbreaking when one runs off let alone 4 :-(  it's a shame you didn't get the last charge in even if you had of only left him a wound it's a proppa ironjawz way to go down.  

[N_Watson]

Just caught up on the thread. Loving the reports and keep going back to look at your gore gruntas for inspiration. I have a 37 model Ironjawz army, similar to yours and currently only 13 models are painted to a table top standard. I only got back into the hobby in the summer having not painted a model since I was a wee guy. 

This is my 13th model. Still learning techniques and haven't finished highlighting. Still got a ways to go, bit felt it was only fair to post it here given that I have got most of my inspiration from the thread. 

 

Looking forward to the next battle report. 

Edited November 30, 2016 by N_Watson

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning all,

Hope everyone is well. Our sub forum feels a bit quieter at the moment, I guess it's not just me who is super busy at this time of year, eh?! Few replies to catch up on first...

On ‎28‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 0:32 PM, Soulsmith said:

Great read Chris. Sounds like a great game. I look forward to your BB team, I am planning myself on magnetising some of the hands so I can replace them with weapons for use as ardboyz - the thrower is getting a boar boy spear, the pose i perfect.

Cheers mate. Yeah I really do think the models will work a treat. I saw one guy (think a GW employee) do some on Twitter and they looked decent. Haven't seen as many as I would've expected though. Definitely a project for me in 2017.

Has anyone had any joy sourcing good Ardboy shields?

On ‎28‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 0:49 PM, Nico said:

I certainly enjoy this thread and I'm sure many others do too. I've been doing my battle reports every week for some time now and it's great when you get feedback on it. Cannot wait to do the ones on Blood & Glory.

At the very least, you can reread them yourself and look at the photos in a years time to rekindle the alcohol nuked memories.... That's one reason I do them.

Thanks for your posts and thoughts (the other one was too long to quote! ), appreciate the comments throughout. 

On ‎28‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 1:29 PM, LortOlle said:

I understand that it is a lot of work typing up the whole battle report like you do but it does help to read your perspective on things that is uncommon in my own meta and situations I haven't run in to yet.

You might not need to be so through, for your own sanities sake, but keep the unexpected or rare situations. 

That's good to hear man. Always nice to know it's of some use tbh. I do enjoy the more thorough reports but you may be right. I think it wasn't helped by doing so many tournaments in such a short space of time. Backlogs like that are pretty demoralising.

On ‎30‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 7:00 AM, Sangfroid said:

Looking good so far Megaboss, I agree about the inspiring presence on the brutes and to heartbreaking when one runs off let alone 4 :-(  it's a shame you didn't get the last charge in even if you had of only left him a wound it's a proppa ironjawz way to go down.  

Cheers bro. Yeh battleshock is a funny thing, I got super excited about running 2x 10 Brutes but I just dunno now. Needs more testing next year.

Hhhmm...just had a thought, what's the max unit size for Brutes? Is it just 10? Don't have GH to hand. If not, what about a single mega unit? Could be fun.

On ‎30‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 10:49 AM, N_Watson said:

Just caught up on the thread. Loving the reports and keep going back to look at your gore gruntas for inspiration. I have a 37 model Ironjawz army, similar to yours and currently only 13 models are painted to a table top standard. I only got back into the hobby in the summer having not painted a model since I was a wee guy. 

This is my 13th model. Still learning techniques and haven't finished highlighting. Still got a ways to go, bit felt it was only fair to post it here given that I have got most of my inspiration from the thread. 

 

Looking forward to the next battle report. 

Hey man, that's a seriously great post to read. Being able to inspire another persons hobby surely has to be the coolest thing - especially when you're producing cool stuff like that. Looks great. The yellow has come out well and the skin tone is nice. Obviously I am a fan of the basing as well!!  

My only suggestion would be to maybe add some warpaint, markings or something to break up some of the yellow? Dunno. Looks good as it is. Can't wait to see the finished army. Will look great on the table, as will you behind it now that you have a sweet TBS t-shirt on order!  

Keep up the good work!

Ok, onto regular business now...

Well it's kind of been a while since I posted here. As mentioned above the forum as a whole seems a bit quiet. Regarding this thread in particular I guess the blame has to fall on me for not keeping the regular updates coming, but it is hard work as I have to fit it around my working day. On top of this I haven't played with my Ironjawz or even done any hobby related to them over the past month or so and I think realistically, that's probably it for the year (in part thanks to Final Fantasy XV).

That said, I will be finishing this thread off with reports of all games from 2016 and do a kinda wrap up on it. Then when the Tournament season kicks off in 2017 I can pick it back up and we can try and generate some momentum, interest and excitement for the thread again. Taking Da Black Sunz to America and possibly (though unlikely) the Masters in January alone will be a fun time.
Also all my plans around additional units and generic Destruction stuff are all still in place, so there will be plenty of cool things and reasons to keep this thread going. I want to be the premier Ironjawz player and to have another great year on the tournament scene with them (great as in a great time, if not results!).

I guess a bit of downtime was always going to happen, if not from tournament burnout but just because the Christmas period is such a busy time for me socially (also, again, Final Fantasy XV!).

So for now I just wanted to check in really and say hi!
Later today or tomorrow I will wrap on my final game of the Warchiefs GT in a similar fashion to the above reports. After that, my coverage of Clash and the other few games will just be a couple of lines (sorry @Forestreveries) with any particular highlights etc.

So yeah, keep an eye on things...The Megaboss will return!  

[Nico]

Quote

Has anyone had any joy sourcing good Ardboy shields?

Surely the bleeding torsos of Stormcast Eternals are appropriate Ardboy shields?

Edited December 7, 2016 by Nico

[Dez]

Same boat! I've been playing my Skaven more and more, and my personal life has been eventful. I am also playing a bit of ESO, I need to take a bit of a hobby break...even though I probably still build or paint an hour a day.

 

keep the thread going! It's inspirational, and I'm sure plenty of lurkers read it.

[Dotification]

With a lack of fall-winter-spring releases, it looks like the AoS community is hibernating a lil bit.  Most of us 'Ardnobs are waiting  to see if the Gargant gets an IRONJAWZ keyword as he'll be in 2* of our warscroll battalions by then.  Hopefully!--I would love to see how the different hobbyists 'arden him up!

As far as sourcing shields for the 'Ardboyz, would Ogor gutplates taken as battle-trophies work?  It's too bad the BloodBowl team doesn't have any extra shields on their sprues.  Maybe some Ogryn shields from 40k, if they're not too big??

As an American (Minneapolis, MN), I'm a bit jealous of all the AoS tournaments you Brits put on for each other over there!  You can really tell you guys are GW's home market!  My club is a road trip's distance within Waupaca, but the rest of my mates have the Infinity bug this winter, plus there wasn't space for us in the AoS narrative event last time I checked, & who knows if there would be enough drop-outs for all 5-6 of us to fit in...

Has everyone given feedback for The General's HB 2.0 yet? I've been lobbying for cheaper Ruglud's Armoured Boyz to join our little faction FWIW, amongst rebalanced WeirdNobs, Maw-Krushas, & Gore-gruntas.  It feels like there's so much focus on the Megaboss & his Brutes, 'A-Boyz & Warchanters within the competitive community, as the smaller half of our faction underwhelms for their point costs.  Which is a pity as they are way too sharp to not see the table more than they do currently!

Well, enough of my blabbering, point is; there are plenty of vicarious lurkers like me following this thread, & the tales of your battles are appreciated!  Your army is well converted & painted, & you sound like a bro to play, & quite the ale-guzzler too, so you make a good representative of our community.  That being said, don't feel compelled to post here, just know that it's appreciated either way.  

[Dotification]

*I still run the old legacy/compendium IronJawz BigMob from time to time--Black Orcs hitting on 3's (around the BOBB) & wounding on 2's while moving an inch faster than the 'Ardboyz iteration is good times, though I wish they were BattleLine by default!

[Mohojoe]

5 hours ago, Dez said:

Same boat! I've been playing my Skaven more and more, and my personal life has been eventful. I am also playing a bit of ESO, I need to take a bit of a hobby break...even though I probably still build or paint an hour a day.

 

keep the thread going! It's inspirational, and I'm sure plenty of lurkers read it.

I'm lurking in the shadows.

[Nico]

Quote

Has everyone given feedback for The General's HB 2.0 yet? I've been lobbying for cheaper Ruglud's Armoured Boyz to join our little faction FWIW, amongst rebalanced WeirdNobs, Maw-Krushas, & Gore-gruntas.  It feels like there's so much focus on the Megaboss & his Brutes, 'A-Boyz & Warchanters within the competitive community, as the smaller half of our faction underwhelms for their point costs.  Which is a pity as they are way too sharp to not see the table more than they do currently!

As you may know, @scrubyandwells ran a community points for Ironjawz project - which ended up suggesting a lot of these changes. He posted those comments on the thread and/or elsewhere. I've put similar comments in the thread as well.

Ironjawz are flatly underpowered at the moment - they are fundamentally worse than Greenskinz in the General's Handbook at the moment - far worse synergies, no easy access to rend (Orruks are battleline which have rend -1), lower model count which matters in most battleplans. Greenskinz' one battalion replicates the Ironfist movement and yet is also faster (because they add two to their run rolls) and gives a big combat buff too. 

Above all else Greenskinz can mix in any number of Destruction toys from other factions (of which there are so many good choices cf. Chaos where 75% of the Grand Alliance Warscrolls are essentially useless/redundant even if what's left does include some strong stuff - Skaven, Legion, Sayl, Little Archaon, Bloodbound and to some extent Nurgle), whereas Ironjawz can only do this if they have (in practice) at least 6 combat units (3 in Ironfist and 3 other battleline units). This leads them down the treacherous path of melee MSU where they risk being crushed by a small number of larger buff stacked units or battleshocked off by shooting. Oddly the only thing I've re-evaluated my respect for is the Weirdnob Shaman, who does offer a lot - +1 to cast is massive, +2 to cast is epic (however, he too would be better in a Greenskinz army).

Quote

*I still run the old legacy/compendium IronJawz BigMob from time to time--Black Orcs hitting on 3's (around the BOBB) & wounding on 2's while moving an inch faster than the 'Ardboyz iteration is good times, though I wish they were BattleLine by default!

In addition to points, I've suggested that Ardboyz be inherent battleline. Ideally they will have this and an allegiance pack (marginally better than the Destruction one) - so you'll have a choice between sticking to allegiance or not and a cost-benefit analysis to this.

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Nico

[Chris Tomlin]

Afternoon,

Just gonna do some replies now. Hopeful of getting my Warchiefs round 5 report sorted this afternoon.

Before I get onto that actually, just wanna say congrats to @Sangfroid for squeezing into the 16th UK masters spot after a great performance at Blood & Glory. Great to see one of own making this prestigious event...though only downside is that by getting in, he just bumped me out and down to 17th haha!! There is likely to be someone from the initial 16 invites that cannot make it though, so I may well still be in for a shot. But no, seriously, well done Kieran.

There is actually an opportunity for me to get in, as I'm helping run an 20 man event this weekend in Cardiff and am not actually playing. If I decided to play and made the podium I would get myself back in 16th...however this goes against what it would mean to get there without actively going after it, if that makes sense and I'm not really that sort of player. I'm there to help Paddy and that's more important! Still, its been a fantastic year regardless and I'm proud of my achievements (Painting and Sports awards more than gaming for sure).

Anyway...

20 hours ago, Dez said:

Same boat! I've been playing my Skaven more and more, and my personal life has been eventful. I am also playing a bit of ESO, I need to take a bit of a hobby break...even though I probably still build or paint an hour a day.

keep the thread going! It's inspirational, and I'm sure plenty of lurkers read it.

Cheers Dez, as one of the original guys who was posting loads in this Sub Forum, you definitely have had a part to play in keeping this going etc, so thanks! I don't think there's anything wrong with people taking a bit of downtime now and again.

15 hours ago, Dotification said:

With a lack of fall-winter-spring releases, it looks like the AoS community is hibernating a lil bit.  Most of us 'Ardnobs are waiting  to see if the Gargant gets an IRONJAWZ keyword as he'll be in 2* of our warscroll battalions by then.  Hopefully!--I would love to see how the different hobbyists 'arden him up!

As far as sourcing shields for the 'Ardboyz, would Ogor gutplates taken as battle-trophies work?  It's too bad the BloodBowl team doesn't have any extra shields on their sprues.  Maybe some Ogryn shields from 40k, if they're not too big??

As an American (Minneapolis, MN), I'm a bit jealous of all the AoS tournaments you Brits put on for each other over there!  You can really tell you guys are GW's home market!  My club is a road trip's distance within Waupaca, but the rest of my mates have the Infinity bug this winter, plus there wasn't space for us in the AoS narrative event last time I checked, & who knows if there would be enough drop-outs for all 5-6 of us to fit in...

Has everyone given feedback for The General's HB 2.0 yet? I've been lobbying for cheaper Ruglud's Armoured Boyz to join our little faction FWIW, amongst rebalanced WeirdNobs, Maw-Krushas, & Gore-gruntas.  It feels like there's so much focus on the Megaboss & his Brutes, 'A-Boyz & Warchanters within the competitive community, as the smaller half of our faction underwhelms for their point costs.  Which is a pity as they are way too sharp to not see the table more than they do currently!

Well, enough of my blabbering, point is; there are plenty of vicarious lurkers like me following this thread, & the tales of your battles are appreciated!  Your army is well converted & painted, & you sound like a bro to play, & quite the ale-guzzler too, so you make a good representative of our community.  That being said, don't feel compelled to post here, just know that it's appreciated either way.  

Thanks dude, that's a great post...super kind words! Why not try to get down to Waaagh!Paca anyway. I'm coming from the UK and am not signed up to any events, just gonna hang out and play some pick up games. Should be a blast.

I'll look into gutplates and Ogryns. Cheers.

I am sending off my feedback directly tonight. Did a bit with @scrubyandwells originally but have the opportunity to provide my own thoughts.

15 hours ago, Dotification said:

*I still run the old legacy/compendium IronJawz BigMob from time to time--Black Orcs hitting on 3's (around the BOBB) & wounding on 2's while moving an inch faster than the 'Ardboyz iteration is good times, though I wish they were BattleLine by default!

Yeh, Ardboyz as Batteline would solve a lot of problems...although between painting 20 more of them or 30 Savages I'm not sure which is worse!!  

15 hours ago, Mohojoe said:

I'm lurking in the shadows.

Ha! Thanks...I think!  Keep lurking bro.

@Nico - I agree with a fair amount of what you've said, but not all. I may reply to that one individually in more details as there is a lot there. In short though, Ironjawz are kinda weak I think. Though...saying Ironjawz don't have easy access to rend was a typo on your part or a misreading on mine, right?

Hopefully check back in later with a report...spoiler, its vs Fyreslayers!

Chris

Edited December 8, 2016 by Chris Tomlin

[Nico]

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Before I get onto that actually, just wanna say congrats to @Sangfroid for squeezing into the 16th UK masters spot after a great performance at Blood & Glory. Great to see one of own making this prestigious event...though only downside is that by getting in, he just bumped me out and down to 17th haha!! There is likely to be someone from the initial 16 invites that cannot make it though, so I may well still be in for a shot. But no, seriously, well done Kieran.

Good luck on getting the final place (someone probably will not be able to make it given it's in January right - normally a busy time of year).

Quote

@Nico - I agree with a fair amount of what you've said, but not all. I may reply to that one individually in more details as there is a lot there. In short though, Ironjawz are kinda weak I think. Though...saying Ironjawz don't have easy access to rend was a typo on your part or a misreading on mine, right?

Cheers.

I should have been more specific - the rend point was really about the contrast between regular Greenskinz and Ironjawz. Regular Greenskinz are 10 models for 100 battleline with rend -1 on single handed weapons - there are hardly any battleline units that meet this description (Vulkites with picks and shields) - their stats aren't amazing otherwise, but still - really good! Ardboyz only get rend if they take the Big Choppas (which isn't great). Brutes do get -1 rend, but they have their own issues (as discussed variously by the whole thread and especially you above).

A nice to have in any army would be to have an elite unit or something that has -2 rend somewhere - at the moment only the Brute Boss has that option (cf Archai, Scythe Hunters, Bullgors, Stormfiends with Doom Flayers - everyone is asking what are Doom Flayers? Where do I get my Warpfire Throwers). Admittedly Khorne don't have an option I can think of in that regard (Wrathbros would be the equivalent).   

At the moment Ironjawz only have that on their expensive heroes; the Brute Boss; and the Megaboss (Krunk or otherwise). They don't have a cheap monster than can be buffed - perhaps the Gargant imminently? 

For a time this wasn't an issue, as Duardin (ignoring rend of -1) and Temple Guard (ignoring rend of -1) drifted out of fashion. However, more recently the Sylvaneth are rocking a 2+ save rerollable, ignoring rend of -1 on their Ancients and Durthus - before they tack on mystic shield and shield of thorns. I know you've been schooling the Sylvaneth repeatedly (I cannot remember whether Aaron is going for Briarsheath (also a brilliant option) instead of Oaken Armour or using Alarielle as the general), but it's something that concerns me.  

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Nico

[Nico]

To the extent that it's 35% Ironjawz, namely a single notable hero, here's a link to my army's exploits and mishaps so far at Blood & Glory (half way through game 3). Happy to collate some detailed thoughts on Gordrakk for this thread as well. In short, he's overcosted (at least given the amount of terrain on a typical board) at present (I only realised how awful his big base and movement 12 is later on in the event), but still an option for other Destruction armies.

If he goes down in price as requested by many for GH v2, he'll become a competitive option again for Ironjawz - the +2 attacks buff is huge. He's great in some match ups - the greatest hard counter to wizards in the game if he can touch them.

4 of the 6 games were Destruction vs Destruction, so probably of some interest to Ironjawz players from that perspective (especially since Fanatics, Thundertusks, Kunning Rukk and Stonehorns are some of the possible hard counters to Ironjawz.

 

[Forestreveries]

9 minutes ago, Nico said:

For a time this wasn't an issue, as Duardin (ignoring rend of -1) and Temple Guard (ignoring rend of -1) drifted out of fashion. However, more recently the Sylvaneth are rocking a 2+ save rerollable, ignoring rend of -1 on their Ancients and Durthus - before they tack on mystic shield and shield of thorns. I know you've been schooling the Sylvaneth repeatedly (I cannot remember whether Aaron is going for Briarsheath (also a brilliant option) instead of Oaken Armour or using Alarielle as the general), but it's something that concerns me.  

I play Briarsheath as default but defer to Gnarled Warrior and Oaken Armour vs Ironjaws.  

This was a decision made after playing Chris a couple of times. 

Brutes + Warchanters reliably hit monsters even with -2 to hit,so Briarsheath feels wasted in this matchup. The extra armour and ignoring Rend is much more valuable. 

[Nico]

Quote

Brutes + Warchanters reliably hit monsters even with -2 to hit,so Briarsheath feels wasted in this matchup. The extra armour and ignoring Rend is much more valuable. 

Good analysis. I'd forgotten that Brutes with a Warchanter would be a 75% shot to hit if they were +1 and -1 to hit with a reroll vs an Ancient.

Briarsheath is great vs exploding attacks and mortal wound mechanics (I know that you know this already Aaron), which Ironjawz don't have (even Gordrakk gets special effects on wound rolls not hit rolls), but I'm increasingly leaning towards 2+ rerolling ones, ignoring rend of -1.

 

[Chris Tomlin]

Will reply to the above by @Forestreveries & @Nico tomorrow.

I've written up the majority of that final battle report for Warchiefs GT so can get that up in the morning as well  

Have a good evening!

[Sangfroid]

@Chris Tomlin thank you for the comment, TBH I am really happy at where we have both finished, (with basically a bunch of Orruks and in my case some Ogors early in the year) <4pts difference is basically nothing in fact it's probably in the grand scheme of things a single priority role in a single game in one of the various tournies we have been this year! I'd love it to be 15/16 rather than 16/17 I really would and while I hope everyone who can go wants to go, if someone does drop out, well then life is peachy, Megaboss! 

Still one more event to go before its official though and so no chicken counting just yet!

 

[Chris Tomlin]

12 hours ago, Sangfroid said:

@Chris Tomlin thank you for the comment, TBH I am really happy at where we have both finished, (with basically a bunch of Orruks and in my case some Ogors early in the year) <4pts difference is basically nothing in fact it's probably in the grand scheme of things a single priority role in a single game in one of the various tournies we have been this year! I'd love it to be 15/16 rather than 16/17 I really would and while I hope everyone who can go wants to go, if someone does drop out, well then life is peachy, Megaboss! 

Still one more event to go before its official though and so no chicken counting just yet!

 

Yeh man, it is really cool tbh. I remember watching a lot of your games at New Dawn back in March of this year and thinking "This guy is gonna be good!"...and here we are, you potentially in the Masters.

If the one event you're talking about is Age of Santa this weekend, there is actually a threat I hadn't previously considered; Kris Robertson. I good result from him (unfortunately quite likely, given the field) could see you drop down a spot. But as everyone has said, there is likely to be someone in the 16 who can't make it, so your chances are good. The only other players ranked decently are @Cowboy Boots Matt, @jonwarmington and @Paul Buckler I think, but none of them can catch you (I don't think? Don't take this as gospel though haha!!)

I definitely will not be playing, that was a joke haha!  

Anyway...enough on the rankings/Masters...

Ok, so here we go...

Game 27 - Warchiefs GT - Round Five vs Carl Smith (Fyreslayers)

Ooooh Fyreslayers...an army I always say are pretty weak and a good match for Ironjawz? Sounds great! Throw in the fact that they are a very nice looking Fyreslayers army and that Carl (ideal name for a Fyreslayers player btw!) is a top bloke - sounds really great!!
And spoilers, it really was great. Had a blast with Carl and straight up I'll say he got my Best Sports and actually took home that award, so good one man! Not sure if Carl is on here, searched the @'s a bit but couldn't find him?

This Battleplan was a bit fruity, you'll have to read the pack I linked to a couple of pages ago as it'd take me forever to explain. In short there are 4 objectives worth 1 point (2 in each territory, each themed around a Chaos God with a suitable debuff to nearby units) and one central objective worth 2 points (and giving out all 4 debuffs). For each of the 4 games youd previously one you could grant immunity from one of the debuff to one your units. Other than that it's a pretty standard objective grab...oh yeh, 2 of the 1pt objectives blow up in T3 and the other 2 in T4! Pretty crazy.

Carl's army was cool, he had the Runefather on Magmadroth (Kingdom Hearts keyblade thing ftw!), Grimwrath, Runesmiter, Runestoker, maybe one other character, 30 tunneling dudes, 20 tunneling dudes and 20 Hearthguard fighty dudes. Sorry I'm being super lazy with the names!!

We layed down the objectives and rolled for sides. This is one game where had I won I actually would've chosen the opposite side as the one I was on had the Nurgle (-1 save) and Khorne (D3 mortal wounds) objectives on, whilst his had Tzeentch (something spell related that didnt effect either of us) and Slaanesh (move D6" randomly if not in combat). So yeh, that was pretty lopsided and I actually felt we should've spread them out differently (wasn't set in the pack), but suggesting that after the fact would've seemed like bad sports. But anyway, I got on with it and deployed fairly normally (I always say that, do people know what I do by now? Can do a pic if not). Carl had 50 Fyreslayers tunnelling (20 and 30) and set up his Grimwrath on the Slaanesh objective and the Heathguard and other characters on the Tzeentch one, which was also on a Mystical hill. The Magmadorth went dead centre to use its speed to get into the middle objective.

Thanks to my battalion I was down well before him. I surveyed the table...obviously this plays a little like Border War (GHOUL PATROL!), which I always go first in to score early....I looked at Carl and say "You can go first mate".

He gives me a genuinely baffled look and begins his turn. No sooner have I done this do I swear quite loudly at myself (Carl's young son was away from the table)...what an utterly stupid, uneccesary, unforced mistake. Wow! I think being a top bloke he actually may even have offered for me to take the turn at that point, but in my mind I'd made my bed so would have to lay in it.
Now there were a couple of bits in this game were I felt a little hard done by on the dice, however I cannot reflect negatively on any of that as this initial mistake off the bat was so monumental, nothing else mattered.

The Heathguard failed their Mystical test for the first 3 turns of the game, but it didn't matter as they were sitting pretty on an objective. The Grimwrath chilled near Slaanesh and the Magmadroth swaggered up to the centre. That's 4-0 Carl and we've barely started.

Both units of tunnellers come up in front of my battleline and both make their charges into me. Some Brutes were deployed in cover so I wasn't too worried tbh. What I didn't bank on was that shield throw rule...I did not realise just one ginger bro needs to get within an inch and the whole unit lobs the shields in. So, Megaboss Krunk went down, before he moved as 30 shields were chucked at him!!
Initially I said it was a terrible way for the Hero of Legend to die, until Carl pointed out that dudes spinning shields into big green monsters could be kinda cool if you're a Marvel fan, which I am, so it was!! But yeh, I was on the ropes.

In any battleplan like this, if you can take the fight to the enemy and have combats take place across their objectives then by default you are protecting your own. The best form of defence is a good offence...or something.
Anyway, as I said, Fyreslayers are pretty weak...and they are. By the end of my Turn 1 (ONE!) all 50 tunnelling Fyreslayers and their character mate were dead to a man. Take them all off. I'd lost very little (other than Krunk) in return. He could put no real damage on me and once you take the units past the 4+ "ward save" they die in droves, no battleshock immunity either. So yeah, that was good and made me feel a little better. However, due to the battleplan I don't think I scored anything that turn!

From there, I was thinking, well I can probably turn this around now and tbh, I feel I probably could have done.
In short, I was able to table the Fyreslayers quite convincingly without much loss however the earlier deficit was too large to turn around, especially as the two objectives that disappeared were the one on my side I was holding with Brutes (so they couldn't leave) and more detrimentally on Carl's side it was the one I was about to claim that went.
I also charged the Cabbage into a hero with one wound left, planning to Destructive Bulk him off and then go into the Magmadroth behind it, finish that (only a few wounds left) and then claim 2 points from the middle. However in my 6 dice (Cabbage had taken some wounds) I was unable to pop the single 4+ required, so had to finish him off and again lost points.

So yeh...loss. Pretty crazy really considering all the Duardin were dead, but I would put it all down to that one inexplicable mistake when choosing to go second!! Great game though.

Result - Major Loss

All in all a very disappointing 15th out of 26 players. Strange really as there wasn't a single game where I thought "I can't win this"...which is good in a way, always nice to feel in a game but I do feel I could've done better.
Still it was a great event vs 5 great guys, all of whom I've never played AoS with (Played Russ and Jon multiple times at WFB).

To top off a great weekend I also picked up Best Painted Army. This was really nice as it was player voted, so nice to pick that up a week after taking Best Painted at Facehammer (which was voted by the judges at that event).
Great trophy as well, will post a pic in a bit.

Oh, reminds me - @Ben are the broken photo links getting fixed do you know? Would love to fix this topic to show up all my pics again.

But yeh, well done to the Warchiefs for putting on a great event...all my feedback/praise is already given elsewhere, but suffice to say they did a fantastic job.

There we go, another Tournament done. Just one more (Clash) to chance up on, then a bunch of random games. As mentioned above the rest of these are gonna be reviewed in a couple of lines so we can wrap up in 2016.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend all.

Chris x

Edited December 9, 2016 by Chris Tomlin

[Forestreveries]

Ha! Carl and Smith are both great Names for a Fyreslayer player!


Sent from the Hidden Enclaves via the Realmroots

[Chris Tomlin]

1 minute ago, Forestreveries said:

Ha! Carl and Smith are both great Names for a Fyreslayer player!
 

YES! Ha! Didn't even consider the surname. That's amazing though.

Run out of likes...considered yourself liked though bro  x