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

[Tom]

@Chris Tomlin Tom wall mate. I think you saw my jawz at alliance. When Ben said I was rubbish for not being on twitter lol. That was there first run out at a tournament. Always up for a drink so if you get a chance we can have a few An rant about what jawz need. 

Agree re the war scrolls. We won't see that till an over haul I feel sadly. But maybe ghb2 will see ironjawz traits An items that will help a little. At the least it's a chance to change them up abit. 

Im not against ironjawz shooting per-say. An in fact orruks with bows makes the most sense in my opinion. I know this is fantasy but historically the best bowmen have long arms an are strong. Orruks all over. This allows for pulling high poundage bows. Thus more power An range. An I would love a shooting option. More models is always good. I just don't wanna see the army divert from primary combat. I.e. The 8th Ed orc gunline list. 

Im takeing list wise.

maw krusha general - tailman of protection - not sure on trait yet. Prob bellowing tyrant

warchanter 

shaman- talisman of protection on balewind

10 brutes with 2 choppers all the gore-choppaz an the boss with klaw an smasha 

20 ardboys 

3 gruterz

5 brutes 

ironfist 

I dropped megaboss for the balewind. Makes me super sad to drop the mega boss I love the model. But the balewind is ok. Against none/minimal shooting army's I find it a good investment. Plus it's one less drop which may help. 

I'm trying to manage expectations. So have build list accordingly. I will get some bad games re my stuff will die fast. But on the lower tables I will see more fluff list less "netlist" (hate that word but you get me) so I'm hopeful the balewind and maw krusha will be more effective. 

At the end of the day this is my first scgt so I wanna have fun meet new people catch up with some old faces get drunk An push my army around.

my glassjawz will be great for that. 

 

[DeadlySarcasm]

I don't know what to really suggest in terms of the how Ironjawz fit into the meta right now. I think you need to think more carefully about how you play them though. Chris has long said you can't just play them as a run up and smash face army, and the more I play with them the more I agree.

I played Ironjawz at tomorrow burns and did quite well with them (granted my final position was heavily affected by soft scores), and I was able to do well by playing them very carefully, and being as brutally kunnin' as I could be!

Having the ironfist and rampaging destroyers make them really solid and getting where they need to be, whether thats out of a tough spot, or straight into someones face when you need to be. 

One of the things I was overlooking was the role of the goregruntas in the army, which, after discussions with Chris at a club night, led me down the route of using them for board control and blocking. In the games that I won I was able to pick and choose where I wanted combats to happen vs my brutes and Mawcrusha, simply by using gore gruntas side on to block off major sections of the board. 2 units of 3 is what I had, along with 10 brutes, 5 brutes, 10 ard boys and the "standard" character loadout (crusha, boss, chanter, shaman).

 

Points changes will help, but when you realise the army does well if you don't just mindlessly run at people, you could potentially find yourself winning more games.

[Tom]

Agreed! Gruters can also tarpit

[Fungrim]

1 hour ago, Tom said:

Im not against ironjawz shooting per-say. An in fact orruks with bows makes the most sense in my opinion. I know this is fantasy but historically the best bowmen have long arms an are strong. Orruks all over. This allows for pulling high poundage bows. Thus more power An range. An I would love a shooting option. More models is always good. I just don't wanna see the army divert from primary combat. I.e. The 8th Ed orc gunline list. 

Right on! And as @Chris Tomlin said Ironjawz in particular have that Uruk Hai feel about them.

By LotR lore, Orcs are warped versions of Elves anyway, so bows ahoy!  Lurtz was the leader of the scouts Saruman sent out and he looked a boss (heh) with a bow.

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey all,

3 hours ago, Tom said:

@Chris Tomlin Tom wall mate. I think you saw my jawz at alliance. When Ben said I was rubbish for not being on twitter lol. That was there first run out at a tournament. Always up for a drink so if you get a chance we can have a few An rant about what jawz need. 

At the end of the day this is my first scgt so I wanna have fun meet new people catch up with some old faces get drunk An push my army around.

Ah yes, the Blackburn Rovers Ironjawz right? (Blue and white)
Very cool, definitely look forward to seeing them in the flesh. The list looks decent, I'll be interested to see how the Shaman on Balewind gets on. I'd genuinely love it to be good, but it seems soooooooooo draw dependant! If you play another combat army (like mine!) he'll be a game winner potentially! Managing expectations is sensible and providing you don't go pressuring yourself and just enjoy it, I think you'll have a great time  

3 hours ago, DeadlySarcasm said:

Chris has long said you can't just play them as a run up and smash face army, and the more I play with them the more I agree.

I played Ironjawz at tomorrow burns and did quite well with them (granted my final position was heavily affected by soft scores), and I was able to do well by playing them very carefully, and being as brutally kunnin' as I could be!

Having the ironfist and rampaging destroyers make them really solid and getting where they need to be, whether thats out of a tough spot, or straight into someones face when you need to be. 

One of the things I was overlooking was the role of the goregruntas in the army, which, after discussions with Chris at a club night, led me down the route of using them for board control and blocking. In the games that I won I was able to pick and choose where I wanted combats to happen vs my brutes and Mawcrusha, simply by using gore gruntas side on to block off major sections of the board. 2 units of 3 is what I had, along with 10 brutes, 5 brutes, 10 ard boys and the "standard" character loadout (crusha, boss, chanter, shaman).

Points changes will help, but when you realise the army does well if you don't just mindlessly run at people, you could potentially find yourself winning more games.

Good post Adam, there is definitely a lot to be said for Kunnin>Brutal!
Glad to have imparted some wisdom upon you along the way. I enjoyed seeing you do well at Tomorrow Burns.

Ok so I thought I'd rattle off a few more reports, I really do need to get back on top of this and would love to start doing them in more detail again. There are some great blogs in this section of the forum with people doing cool detailed battle reports with photos etc.
Unfortunately with the amount of games I play at times it's not always practical to keep up, what with work being my only time to post (my evenings are always full...woe is me, I know! ).

But anyway, let's crack on. First off I just wanted to do a quick round up of the games I've played so far in @Paul Buckler's Blood in the Badrealms map based campaign. Paul has done great work porting the WFB Blood in the Badlands campaign over for AoS and it's been a lot of fun at the club. It's season based (4 games per season) and we have just finished the first season; Winter. There is a painting requirement and you need to keep the same General throughout (though there is an option to change at the season break, though you lose resources doing so). I won't get into the full rules of the campaign, but perhaps Paul will volunteer a link so people can check it out?

My General is my Brute Big Boss, some of the rewards you get for winning games give you rerolls etc (good!), others grant you the ability to break Leader/Behemoth restrictions etc (bad!) and others give extra points (decent!).
Most of the games so far have been 1,000 points as there are lots of newer players just painting their armies. I think this is great and it's awesome to see all the armies coming a long nicely. It also helps that AoS is still a brilliant game at 1,000 points. Love it. Alright, let's see how I've been doing...

Game 64 - Campaign Round 1 (1,000 points) vs Mike D (Seraphon)

For this game I took the list that me and @Paddy O'Sullivan used at Partners in Chaos; Krunk, Warchanter, Ironfist, 10 Brutes, 2x 5 Brutes.
It is fun pushing that many Brutes around in a small game. I dont think it's great on anything, but it's cool.
This was a great game I gotta say, Mike had a Carnosaur, Skink Priest, Bastiladon, 2x Skinks and a big Saurus unit
We played Border War (GHOUL PATROL!), modifying the placing of the objectives to fit on a 4x4 table. I genuinely wish I'd reported thoroughly on this game as it was mental (I tweeted a lot during it), but the main point to note is that the Carnosaur was an absolute beast and killed (not battleshocked) 14 Brutes off before finally being brought down only thanks to me scoring 6 on 2D3 damage from a Gore-choppa (the last attacks I rolled). The rider almost killed Krunk with his stargate glove as well, was super cool. Fortunately for me the Bastiladon was pretty rubbish when it came to armour saves and Krunk obliterated it against the odds.
Saurus are cool (and look great in formation on rounds with spears raised) but are no match for Brutes, so as it was, Mike's offence came almost solely from the Carnosaur. It was brilliant to see the big dino doing well and the game was carnage.
I ended with like 2 models left on the table and Mike had none, allowing me to just sneak ahead on the objective and take the win.
It was a cool game as Mike was a newer player I got to show him some cool tricks with piling in, allowing the Carnosaur to claim my back objective etc. so I think he found it useful (as well as fun). We played plenty of Ninja Sex Party, including the aptly named; Dinosaur Laser Fight!!
After the game we rolled for injuries etc and I was pleased to find out I'd captured the Carnosaur...I've since had it approved that I can write rules for a Megaboss riding a Carnosaur later in the campaign...which sounds awesome fun!!
Result - Major Victory

Game 65 - Campaign Round 2 (1,000 points) vs Tom Oughton (Stormcast Eternals)

This round I decided to take something a bit different and went with Pig Benis on his Cabbage, a Shaman and 2x 5 Brutes haha!! Ridiculous, but super fun at 1,000 points. Once again we played Border War (GHOUL PATROL!) and Tom's army was Celestant on Dracoth, Relictor, Liberators, Judicators, Prosecutors and Retributors.
I went first and just went all out leaving my Shaman to protect my objective. The 2 Brute units went out to the side to claim the objectives there, whilst the Cabbage (with Mystic Shield) flew straight into Tom's army with a nice turn 1 charge!!
I have to say that Tom had some of the most consistently bad dice rolls I've ever seen. So much so when it came to the map part of the campaign I got him to roll dice when a low number was required...he didn't disappoint haha!!
Suffice to say it didn't go overly well for Tom and whilst he did manage to eventually bring the Cabbage down, the damage had already been done.
Result - Major Victory

Game 66 - Campaign Practice (1,000 points) vs Joe Oughton (Order - Wanderers & Sylvaneth mix)

As the above game went really quick I was able to get in a second game, this time vs Tom's brother Joe. Joe had a cool mixed Order army, with a Treelord Ancient, Glade Guard, Eternal Guard, Dryads and Sisters of the Thorn.
I can't actually remember too much about this one (I think by game two there had been at least a couple of double swigs on the ol' Battle Rrew!), just that it was good fun and like his brother, Joe also couldn't roll dice!!
The Cabbage was so much fun in 1,000 points (I was running Battle Brew not Talisman btw), but I dunno if you'd want to let your opponent know beforehand as it is potentially a bit too good and hard to deal with for some lists at that level.
Result - Major Victory

Game 67 - Campaign Round 3 (1,000 points) vs Joe Oughton (Order - Wanderers & Sylvaneth mix)

When it came around to the third round of Campaign games, I found myself challenged by Joe...eager to exact some revenge on Da Black Sunz - playing at a club is fun for stuff like this, especially in a campaign!
Joe used the same list, whilst I reverted to my Round 1 list. This was Take and Hold. This time around Joe was a bit more savvy, casting Shield of Thorns on his Dryads and actually managed to get them down to my objective (going through 5 Brutes on the way). This meant I had to really alter my plan and it was only thanks to a couple of strong rolls for Rampaging Destroyers/Ironfist moves that I was able to get back and deal with the Dryads. This drastically slowed my advance as I then had to get through the Treelord before I could assault his objective. He played the game really well and like my game with Mike, we talked through some options he had throughout.
As it was he was able to sacrifice enough stuff to save his objective. I really enjoyed this as a tactical game (and trolling Joe by saying he looked like Justin Bieber!) and was impressed with Joe's play being that he's a new player. His painting is also coming along nicely which is good to see.
Result - Minor Victory

Game 68 - Campaign Round 4 (2,000 points) vs EVERYONE

This was the "end of season finale" (as you Americans would say!), the Seige of Mount Bloodhorn! I wonder if Paul or anyone else has any photos as it was glorious. Played out over a 12x4" table with probably 10-12 participants, it was an awful lot of fun.
Not really worth reporting in here (though a full report on a blog post would be fun to read), but will add it to the list out of a sense of completeness. Suffice to say I drank waaaay too much Battle Brew, but took off @DeadlySarcasm's Ironjawz (including his Cabbage before it moved!). I even gave him the opportunity to join my Waaagh! We used a simple dice game (think its from an Ironjawz vs Fyreslayers battleplan in one of the books) which Adam really wasn't clocking on to, much to mine and @Forestreveries's amusement.
So with him not joining, he had to be crushed. There were some other bits and bobs going on, including Paul playing "Let it Go" from Frozen and bringing Elsa down to the table to freeze our models to death (I took off @ChippyRick's Mourngul with it haha! ). Anyway, it was definitely one of the more fun megabattles I've played. Our side ended up winning, and I won an artefact that is some kind of magic crown, it will allow Krunk to cast spells!! So come the end of the campaign he'll be riding around on a Carnosaur whilst casting Arcane Bolt at things - AMAZING!!!
Result - Victory!!

Well, there we go, a little change of pace from tournament games or tournament practice games, but all very fun anyway! Looking forward to the campaign restarting after SCGT.

Ok, so I still have 7 SCGT practice games to report on. That's a lot if I want to do them justice. We'll see how I get on tomorrow, even just these shabby quick reports of small games has taken long enough!!

Cheers for reading,
Chris

Edited April 19, 2017 by Chris Tomlin

[Paul Buckler]

Here are few pics from the big game @Chris Tomlin after SCGT there is a bit of a lull, will try to post up some campaign roundups etc in a post here for everyone.

 

Also posted a couple of twitter vids

 

[Solaris]

Sounds fantastic, I love the idea of your Megaboss riding around on a big dino and casting spells! Great image, you have to build this one

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey,

really not convinced I'm gonna get time to post up reports of the 7 SCGT practice games I've had with Ironjawz/Destruction ahead of time . 

I have spent some time this week improving some of my models ahead of the event though. Here are some trademark terrible photos for you. Both models were previously considered "complete" but are work in progress again as they stand here. 

The Shaman was acceptable, however the smoke was never really finished and I didn't like his eyes. I am now much happier with both and having spent literally hours and countless layers on them, need to consider him done (will take some pics of how he looks now after the weekend). These pics give you an idea. 

The Cabbage has had an extra highlight (again not finished in the pic). Whilst I was really happy with him, in some lights you just couldn't see all the line highlights on him which was a bit of a shame given the time. To be truthful he is now a little brighter/lighter than I'd like (and in time I may glaze it back down and do some less stark highlights) but hopefully he'll be harder to miss or overlook now! 

Please bear in mind these are pics taken whilst painting so are by no means truly representative of the finished articles!

Enjoy,

Chris 

Also, @Paul Buckler, I love how the only sight of me in all of those photos is my bottle of JD!!

Edited April 20, 2017 by Chris Tomlin

[N_Watson]

Looking good as always. 

Good luck at the event! 

[Chris Tomlin]

@N_Watson - Cheers man, this time round I think I'll need it!!

Ok.....

Let's see if I can squeeze out at least a few of these SCGT practice game reports.
I had already played the first 3 SCGT battleplans at the Warchiefs Warpath and although I had used Sylvaneth at that event, it had at least given me an idea into how the battleplans worked. So, when I decided to switch back to Ironjawz, my first aim was to play through battleplans 4-6, so we'll look at that first.

As far as the SCGT Agendas go, we and my opponents have just been rolling randomly to simulate the fact you will not have all 6 available each round. It's not ideal, but it makes for better practice IMO.

My list was exactly the same for these 3 games;

• Krunk - Battlebrew
• Pig Benis on Cabbage - General, Bellowing Tyrant, Talisman
• Shaman
• Warchanter
• 10 Brutes
• 5 Brutes
• 5 Brutes
• 10 Ardboys
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• Ironfist

I've discussed this earlier in the thread. It's my post-Masters list (Masters list -1 Warchanter +1 Shaman) with the Megabrutes stripped of their Generalship and split down into a 10 and a 5 (obviously the 5 has Choppas over Jagged Gore-Hackas).
I'm actually not overly keen on the list, but it is what it is and I suspect I'll have to live with it now.
Right...let's see;

Game 69 - SCGT Practice vs Will Philpott @Superpotts (Order)
This was Domination (control quadrants). Will has a really cool army if you're a fan of The World That Was. For want of a better term, it's a High Elf army!
He has a Dragonlord, a Griffon, 2 mounted Princes, a Mage, a Loremaster, Reavers, 2 units of Glade Guard, Swordmasters and White Lions. I think that's about it. Not a huge amount of models, but lots of points in juicy squishy characters!
I mistakenly gave the first turn to Will here (which I don't think I'd ever want to do as given the speed of my army I can ensure 6pts turn 1 if I go first), fortunately he was only able to score 4 points as he couldn't get into my right hand zone.
I moved up to clear off the Reavers which had claimed my left zone and also pressure his zones. I stated in another topic that I think it's vital to mark out the zones (with a central cross shape) and constantly make sure both players are aware which zone each unit is in etc., just feels like best practice to me and avoids any nasty surprises or difficult situations.
Anyway, the size of the zones surprised me and I was able to hold my Shaman and Warchanter back pretty deep and central so that they could dip into either side as required. Will's White Lions were in a crescent around a big blocky bit of terrain so I was aware I could pin them by clipping one side, meaning he's have to either retreat or spend forever bringing the unit to bear (a lesson I learnt the hard way when first playing the Megabrutes vs @Forestreveries).
As it was, Will's army didn't pose too much of a threat. I cleared up the shooting and was able to get stuck in. He stayed in the game due to having plenty of units and I gave him a bit of guidance around spacing them so I couldn't get any tasty 2-for-1's with the Cabbage etc. The Cabbage was start off poorly, charging 2 Glade Guard and only killing 1 with its full strength Destructive Bulk!! Loser! Had he done the require 2/8 4+'s I would've had a fresh charge into Will's Dragon.
But yeh, I was able to grind off Will's entire army and the game ended with Krunk dead centre of the table with 10 wounds and 9 attacks on his axe having killed 3 of Will's heroes. The Cabbage redeemed himself by Destructive Bulking off a mounted Prince in a oner which was pretty nice!
Result - Major Victory

Game 70 - SCGT Practice vs Matt Clarke @Gmac2610 (Death)
This was the anvil battleplan (control centre with Leaders). I knew straight away this would be a very tough game. Not only is Matt a very capable playing, but his army was incredibly well suited for this game. He had a Coven Throne, Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, Ghoul King, Wraith, 3x 10 Ghouls and some other bits I can't remember. The main kicker is that he had about 600 reinforcement points for summoning.
We had a good discussion at the start of the game about how instead of the usual summoning (Mourngul etc.), Matt might be better off spamming cheap characters (Wraiths and Banshees) to ensure he stayed up on the scenario objective. To cut a long story short, that's kind of what happened really and it was a really uphill battle I felt.
I managed to get the larger Brute unit into the Terrorgheist, but with its triple save I just couldn't do anything (really felt the loss of the Megabrutes with their extra Gore-choppas and built in +1 to hit). It did felt like Matt was rolling well, but I think it's always the way with rerolls or extra saves, especially if the initial armour save blocks the D3s. It went worse for the Brutes as the Coven Throne outright stopped them attacking (how have I never heard of that spell, so cool!!).
My agenda was to get a unit off Matt's territory, so the Gore-gruntas did that. Matt's was to kill more Leaders than me, however where he was constantly re-summoning the cheap ones I easily outscored him here so I knew at worse it'd be a Minor Defeat which was cool. I had my Cabbage camped quite a defensive position and striking the anvil 3 times each turn, one time even rolling 4,5 and 6 (the best possible roll). That really kept me in the game to be honest, as did Matt's summoned Morghasts failing to kill my Shaman or Warchanter, allowing Krunk to wade in and talk them off.
In a rather strange twist (and mostly thanks to that anvil!), I actually would've been able to auto win the game on the major had I won the final priority! I didn't and Matt deservingly took the win...would've felt a bit cheap had I got it as I hadn't felt in a winning position all game! Just a word of warning with that anvil, it is a bit of a red herring I think. The Cabbage is ok to sit there and strike away with his 14 wounds and 4+ mortal wound save, but for most other heroes the risk of taking multiple mortal wounds in a battleplan where you need your characters alive to win just doesn't seem worth it, IMO.
As per usual, a great game with Matt. Interested to see how he does at the event.
Result - Minor Defeat

Game 71 - SCGT Practice vs Ricky Mee @ChippyRick (Death)
Death two games in a row! Madness. What's even better is that these were played in the same day...I felt like a cheap rentboy what with multiple gentlemen coming to my house in turn to bum me!!
This was the Realmgate battleplan (control Realmgates). Ricky is a great player and is rocking what I think is a really good/interesting list; Vampire, Isabella, Mourngul, 3 units of Zombies (changing to Skeles for SCGT), 2x 6 Spirit Hosts and 10 Blood Knights. Think that's it?
It was really important to play this game and get a bit of a handle on it, as it is mental. Again, like the anvil above, I think the Realmgates themselves are red herrings (with exceptions!!). For the most part you can play this game like Border War (GHOUL PATROL!), only using the 'gates when an opportunity arises to take their back objective (usually when they haven't camped battleline) or in a pinch when desperation kicks in.
I went first and took the side gates with Gruntas on the left, and 5 Brutes on the right. The 5 Brutes got both Inspiring Presence and Mystic Shield just to give me a slim hope of surviving the probably Bloodknight onslaught. I also tried to position them as far away as possible to hopefully limit the about of Knights that would get in.
Ricky's turn 1 went really well for me as I was left with a Gore-grunta on full wounds and a Brute on 1 wound(!!) after Ricky’s Bloodknights and Spirit Hosts (Hosts were buffed up massively with command ability, mystical and damned) failed to clear either objective. As I had battleline units, they stopped him scoring, which was great.
To be honest though, that is about as good as it got and within a couple of turns I was trying to batten down the hatches as the Mourngul and Bloodknights went to work on the Ardboys and 10 Brutes holding my gate. The Cabbage and the Brutes did good work on the Bloodknights and if it wasn't for some severely subpar rolls on the Cabbage's fist attack, I think they would've got down around T3-T4 (instead of T5). Once again, I was missing the Megabrutes.
The Mourngul was far too strong in this situation and I couldn't put a wound on it for the life of me. We both had the get a unit of the table agenda, so in a latter turn I cheekily popped my Warchanter off the board.
We had a lot of really useful discussion about the various options for gate travel (engaging chevrons!) and as always with Rick, it was a great game...he just had too much for me. He did get a little wrapped up in the killing towards the end and forgot to send one of his own units off the board, so it was only a Minor Defeat.
Result - Minor Defeat

Phew, hopefully people enjoy that!!

Chris

 

[Sangfroid]

Sounds like good games! for ironjawz the damn mourngul is such a pain in the neck I find :-( as for your list I think it's as optimum as your gonna get in an Ironfist under scgt pack only change you might consider is ditching ardboyz for second gorepigs their speed and toughness and board control but is that better than 5 extra wounds and 10 models... not really sure tbh 

 

[Chris Tomlin]

15 hours ago, Sangfroid said:

Sounds like good games! for ironjawz the damn mourngul is such a pain in the neck I find :-( as for your list I think it's as optimum as your gonna get in an Ironfist under scgt pack only change you might consider is ditching ardboyz for second gorepigs their speed and toughness and board control but is that better than 5 extra wounds and 10 models... not really sure tbh 

Cheers mate. Yeh the Mourngul is definitely a problem. I was able to take down Byron's at the Masters by double stacking Warchanter buffs on the Megabrutes. Have lost the ability to do any of that here, so they will cause me issues.

I like the diversity of Ardboys and Gore-gruntas and tbh am honestly not sure which is better under the pack. Either way I need to paint more of both!

Well, aside from @Sangfroid's reply and @N_Watson's "like", I can't say it feels like it was worth busting a nut yesterday afternoon to get that all written out as the views haven't even gone up much either, so it's not just a case of lack of replies. Was gonna try to do the other 4 today, but likely we'll catch up with them after SCGT now. Roll on 5pm.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Chris Tomlin

[N_Watson]

38 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

I like the diversity of Ardboys and Gore-gruntas and tbh am honestly not sure which is better under the pack. Either way I need to paint more of both!

I have opted to got for 2*3 goregruntas myself, with the rest of list being pretty much the same. Just find myself using the ardboys to sit on an objective and the pigs can deny more space and are faster. Not to mention look better. Less bodies is a thing though. 

40 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Well, aside from @Sangfroid's reply and @N_Watson's "like", I can't say it feels like it was worth busting a nut yesterday afternoon to get that all written out as the views haven't even gone up much either, so it's not just a case of lack of replies.

Would have replied yesterday, but was at vets night at my local GW. It takes a lot of time to type these things up, but people do read the thread and follow it.

Was playing with my mates Stormcast Vs my own ironjawz list. Was hilarious watching someone else have to deal with filth for a change! 

16 hours ago, Sangfroid said:

as for your list I think it's as optimum as your gonna get in an Ironfist

Pretty much this. I have tried less than 20 brutes about 10 times now and it just doesn't fly. I think we need 6 pigs, 20 ardboys or half and half to support it, but we can reduce the number of brutes currently. 

[Ratrek]

Just wanted to say good luck at the SCGT this weekend!

Also that this thread (along with the GHB and GW's community engagement) has pulled me back in. I haven't played since 7th but the enthusiasm in this thread and most of the Destruction board have convinced me to give AoS a go. So a hearty huzzah to you good sir for getting the hobby fires burning again.

[Thalenchar]

What an excellent thread this is. I've not spent much time on this forum, to be fair, but this past week I've read all 20 pages of this thread with much enthusiasm! Very inspiring stuff! So much so, in fact, it pushed me over the edge to abandon my Chaos roots for a bit and start a Ironjawz force! Maybe they are on a bit of a competitive downward trajectory, but man, they look like fun to play! 
My first order of some Brutes and a Megaboss should arrive by the end of this week, which should maybe give me enough time to paint the Shaman I already own (for Silver Tower). If I only paint my Jawz half as well as yours, I'll be well pleased. I'll just have to come up with a cool scheme. 
Thanks for your efforts, Chris! Hope you've had a great weekend at SCGT. Looking forward to reading more about your exploits! 

[Mitzy]

On 4/18/2017 at 2:37 PM, Chris Tomlin said:

Need some ideas for suitable banners...nudge nudge @Mitzy  

Sorry @Chris Tomlin i totally missed your request for help! Call myself a Megaboss... So my Gore Grunta banner came straight from the Ork Warboss plastic kit (I think I have one spare if you need one - just hit me up). I used a Jagged gore hacker blade as the top of the banner pole so it kinda looks like it is one with a flag fixed to it.

[Chris Tomlin]

Morning all,

So SCGT has come and gone for another year. It was a great weekend and I was pleased to meet some of the guys from this forum and see some cool new Ironjawz armies from @Tom and @KnightFire. As suspected, my performance was middling. I honestly couldn't see pure Ironjawz getting more than 3/6 wins under that pack and meta without more than a large slice of luck. Still, I knew this going in and thoroughly enjoyed all my games, which I will catch up on in due course. No real rush as I don't think there are too many more events coming up in the near future.

I've lost no love for the Ironjawz and have spent some hobby hours this week cracking on with assembling my other Gore-gruntas. I really need to ride the motivation else I would never get all 18 assembled, let alone painted. I put a video on Twitter last night and will share some pics of the assembled ones here later. 12/18 are assembled at the moment (with 3 already painted), will get the other 6 done over the weekend. I'm not really sure how I want to tackle painting them and kinda did want to start my Phoenix Temple project, so may be I'll mix between projects so I don't get bogged down as there are a lot of repeat models between the two armies!

I'm playing a game tonight vs @Bueno and providing he doesn't mind the unpainted models, will probably rock out the 12 Gruntas for the lolz. I'll write a list later on.

On ‎21‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 10:35 AM, N_Watson said:

I have opted to got for 2*3 goregruntas myself, with the rest of list being pretty much the same. Just find myself using the ardboys to sit on an objective and the pigs can deny more space and are faster. Not to mention look better. Less bodies is a thing though. 

Would have replied yesterday, but was at vets night at my local GW. It takes a lot of time to type these things up, but people do read the thread and follow it.

Was playing with my mates Stormcast Vs my own ironjawz list. Was hilarious watching someone else have to deal with filth for a change! 

Pretty much this. I have tried less than 20 brutes about 10 times now and it just doesn't fly. I think we need 6 pigs, 20 ardboys or half and half to support it, but we can reduce the number of brutes currently. 

@N_Watson - I think the Ardboys really do have a place and more often than not I use mine as a screen rather than sitting back. This is variable though. I feel with the amount of shooting and mortal wounds present in England at the moment more bodies/wounds are a must...although the extra 5 wounds the Ardboys have could really conceivably be lost to battleshock each time.

Yeh I get people don't always have time to reply, but I also keep track of views and that's not often the most flattering either haha!

20 Brutes seems about the sweet spot in a standard sort of list I think. I do have 32 painted though and it's been a long time since I've fielded 30. Maybe with some points reductions it'll become viable.

On ‎22‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 8:15 AM, Ratrek said:

Just wanted to say good luck at the SCGT this weekend!

Also that this thread (along with the GHB and GW's community engagement) has pulled me back in. I haven't played since 7th but the enthusiasm in this thread and most of the Destruction board have convinced me to give AoS a go. So a hearty huzzah to you good sir for getting the hobby fires burning again.

@Ratrek - Hey man, that's such great feedback and really nice of you to say. Genuinely makes the time that goes into the thread worthwhile. Are you doing Ironjawz yourself?

On ‎23‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 5:26 PM, Thalenchar said:

What an excellent thread this is. I've not spent much time on this forum, to be fair, but this past week I've read all 20 pages of this thread with much enthusiasm! Very inspiring stuff! So much so, in fact, it pushed me over the edge to abandon my Chaos roots for a bit and start a Ironjawz force! Maybe they are on a bit of a competitive downward trajectory, but man, they look like fun to play! 
My first order of some Brutes and a Megaboss should arrive by the end of this week, which should maybe give me enough time to paint the Shaman I already own (for Silver Tower). If I only paint my Jawz half as well as yours, I'll be well pleased. I'll just have to come up with a cool scheme. 
Thanks for your efforts, Chris! Hope you've had a great weekend at SCGT. Looking forward to reading more about your exploits! 

@Thalenchar - Hey, massive thanks to you as well man! Too kind! Glad to hear I've helped inspire a new Megaboss and I look forward to seeing your finished models. Be sure to give me a poke in the right direction when you post them.

14 hours ago, Mitzy said:

Sorry @Chris Tomlin i totally missed your request for help! Call myself a Megaboss... So my Gore Grunta banner came straight from the Ork Warboss plastic kit (I think I have one spare if you need one - just hit me up). I used a Jagged gore hacker blade as the top of the banner pole so it kinda looks like it is one with a flag fixed to it.

@Mitzy - Haha that's fine man. As it happens I have picked up that very banner after clicking through ever Orruk and Ogor unit to try and find something suitable; I came to the same conclusion as you. I'm also getting a couple of the icon style ones from the Boarboyz unit which I'll try to use. Depending on how it works out I may pick that second one up off you. Thanks a lot.

Can't wait to see the photos of your army that GW took, they are gonna look great. Pro photos of my army is something I'd love!

Thanks all,
Chris

Edited April 27, 2017 by Chris Tomlin

[Fungrim]

Great news you're working on your Gruntas. Really hoping GHB2 makes them that bit more viable, would love to squeeze an extra 3 back into my list (I've got 3 finished, 3 basecoated, 3 primed!)

 

11 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

20 Brutes seems about the sweet spot in a standard sort of list I think. I do have 32 painted though and it's been a long time since I've fielded 30. Maybe with some points reductions it'll become viable.

 

I've seen rumours (....) that GW might be taking AoS back to a points-per-model system. What are your thoughts on this Chris? I'm not sure either way to be honest, I enjoy the min-unit pointage we currently have, makes it more straight forward, but for armies like ours maybe a points-per-model system would work well?

[Chris Tomlin]

32 minutes ago, Fungrim said:

Great news you're working on your Gruntas. Really hoping GHB2 makes them that bit more viable, would love to squeeze an extra 3 back into my list (I've got 3 finished, 3 basecoated, 3 primed!)

Hey @Fungrim, yeh same! I can't see me regularly using more than 6, but it will be fun to have that many. Who knows, maybe in a future Ironjawz book they will become the filth and I'll be laughing...or not! 

I think I will really regret line highlighting the fur by the end of it though. Whilst I think they look great, it does seem a bit unnecessary as the sculpts are so crisp they pick up a skilled drybrush perfectly well. Gruntas I've seen in other well painted Ironjawz armies just go with the drybrush and they look great. Problem is I've already done 3 like it. I'll probably have to try and be more efficient and reduce the steps or something. Watch this space.
 

32 minutes ago, Fungrim said:

I've seen rumours (....) that GW might be taking AoS back to a points-per-model system. What are your thoughts on this Chris? I'm not sure either way to be honest, I enjoy the min-unit pointage we currently have, makes it more straight forward, but for armies like ours maybe a points-per-model system would work well?

Personally I really wouldn't like it and see no reason for them to do this. It works well pricing units by the number of models that come in a box. It's good from a gaming and business point of view in my opinion.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Chris Tomlin

[Fungrim]

18 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Hey @Fungrim, yeh same! I can't see me regularly using more than 6, but it will be fun to have that many. Who knows, maybe in a future Ironjawz book they will become the filth and I'll be laughing...or not! 

I think I will really regret line highlighting the fur by the end of it though. Whilst I think they look great, it does seem a bit unnecessary as the sculpts are so crisp they pick up a skilled drybrush perfectly well. Gruntas I've seen in other well painted Ironjawz armies just go with the drybrush and they look great. Problem is I've already done 3 like it. I'll probably have to try and be more efficient and reduce the steps or something. Watch this space.

I went for the dry-brush! Finding a balance as always isn't it. I managed to get my 2k to an 'ok' standard for Heat 2, but need to go back and improve it quite a bit. Not even looked at weathering yet, which I'd like to. 

 

18 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Personally I really wouldn't like it and see no reason for them to do this. It works well pricing units by the number of models that come in a box. It's good from a gaming and business point of view in my opinion.

I know what you mean, and that's a very good point about unit sizes and selling boxes. Thinking about it, it would also disrupt a lot of the inner game synergies - I'd imagine a lot (if not all) of the warscrolls have been written with standardised unit sizes in mind

[Thalenchar]

1 hour ago, Chris Tomlin said:

 

@Thalenchar - Hey, massive thanks to you as well man! Too kind! Glad to hear I've helped inspire a new Megaboss and I look forward to seeing your finished models. Be sure to give me a poke in the right direction when you post them. 

Thank you for keeping the thread going. Great example of a proper AoS hobby thread, I'd say, focussing on one army. 

Looking forward to seeing how you do with all those Gore Gruntas. I have my first three arriving this weekend, and I'm torn between assembling either the Brutes or Gore Gruntas first. Ah, heck, I'll probably do both! 

[Sangfroid]

@Chris Tomlin love the thread and always read your stuff (even the emo moaning stuff ?) I'm thinking of trying out the gorrefist at Bristol Smash as it may give us an answer to aetherstrike and skyfire spam armies because the 26"+d6 movement (Ravager trait on general) maybe enough to get either so close that aetherwings cant move to intercept or around the screens with 3 units so you can gets some charges off. 

with a Warchanter buff 3 choppa pigs should on average do 8 wounds to skyfires and 6 wounds to raptors (assuming no buffs on them) that's a dead unit of raptors and a 4+ bravery pops the skyfires (both min sized) 

Even if they then can deal with 45 wounds of prime pig meat, they then aren't dealing with the real threat of the brutes and Megaboss hot-footing it across the board to do the real red work!

Not sure yet if it's a good plan and I'd need to paint 3 more.... but the ideas are are washing about in my head again! 

[Chris Tomlin]

44 minutes ago, Fungrim said:

I went for the dry-brush! Finding a balance as always isn't it. I managed to get my 2k to an 'ok' standard for Heat 2, but need to go back and improve it quite a bit. Not even looked at weathering yet, which I'd like to. 

I know what you mean, and that's a very good point about unit sizes and selling boxes. Thinking about it, it would also disrupt a lot of the inner game synergies - I'd imagine a lot (if not all) of the warscrolls have been written with standardised unit sizes in mind

To be honest I find the Ironjawz models quite fun to go back to an improve, something which I wouldn't normally do.

I'm not sure whether the warscrolls were written with unit sizes in mind, they seem a little vauge on that front. Who knows!

13 minutes ago, Thalenchar said:

Thank you for keeping the thread going. Great example of a proper AoS hobby thread, I'd say, focussing on one army. 

Looking forward to seeing how you do with all those Gore Gruntas. I have my first three arriving this weekend, and I'm torn between assembling either the Brutes or Gore Gruntas first. Ah, heck, I'll probably do both! 

Thanks again bro! You're in for a treat when these models arrive. I'm not someone who traditional enjoys model assembly but after 30 odd Brutes and 12 Gore-gruntas I can say that I still love these kits. Fun to mix the parts around, it's simple to create great variety within your units. Have fun!

6 minutes ago, Sangfroid said:

@Chris Tomlin love the thread and always read your stuff (even the emo moaning stuff ?) I'm thinking of trying out the gorrefist at Bristol Smash as it may give us an answer to aetherstrike and skyfire spam armies because the 26"+d6 movement (Ravager trait on general) maybe enough to get either so close that aetherwings cant move to intercept or around the screens with 3 units so you can gets some charges off. 

with a Warchanter buff 3 choppa pigs should on average do 8 wounds to skyfires and 6 wounds to raptors (assuming no buffs on them) that's a dead unit of raptors and a 4+ bravery pops the skyfires (both min sized) 

Even if they then can deal with 45 wounds of prime pig meat, they then aren't dealing with the real threat of the brutes and Megaboss hot-footing it across the board to do the real red work!

Not sure yet if it's a good plan and I'd need to paint 3 more.... but the ideas are are washing about in my head again! 

Emo moaning?! Me?!!! I dunno what you're talking about mate!

Haha that list sounds fun...I'm not sure how great it is, but would be awesome to see you go pig heavy. I need to look into that event. Perhaps if we both go we could run the same weird list or something?

Either way....good to have you back onside brother!  

What do we think about this little beauty I've knocked up?! haha

• Pig Benis on Cabbage - Talisman
• Weirdnob Shaman - Talisman of Protection
• Warchanter
• Warchanter
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 15 Megabrutes - General, Bellowing Tyrant
• Gorefist

2,000 points on the nose. Could drop the 'chanters to bring Krunk to the party, but tbh I can see him sitting this one out (sometimes you have to rest your star player!). Looks entertaining I think, but for clarity this isn't an attempt at a strong list!! I think I like it though.

Chris

[Fungrim]

3 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

 

What do we think about this little beauty I've knocked up?! haha

• Pig Benis on Cabbage - Talisman
• Weirdnob Shaman - Talisman of Protection
• Warchanter
• Warchanter
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 3 Gore-gruntas
• 15 Megabrutes - General, Bellowing Tyrant
• Gorefist

Just saw @Sangfroid 's post, opened up Scrollbuilder and made the same list, with a slight tweak. Feels a bit all or nothing but definitely looks fun to play! Let us know how it goes guys. If we're lucky, Gorefist might also get a slight points reduction in GHB2...?

Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (520)
Orruk Megaboss (140)
Orruk Warchanter (80)

3 x Orruk Gore Gruntas (180)
3 x Orruk Gore Gruntas (180)
3 x Orruk Gore Gruntas (180)
5 x Orruk Brutes (180)
5 x Orruk Brutes (180)
5 x Orruk Brutes (180)

Gorefist (120)
Ironfist (60)

Total: 2000/2000
 

[Chris Tomlin]

@Fungrim - Ha! No word of a lie, your list is the exact first thing I wrote!

Not sure which is better, but after SCGT comping out my Megabrutes I feel the need to run them tonight!

The battalion itself is certainly overpointed, so if we are to assume points reductions in GH2, I'd be hopeful of seeing a slight drop there. I don't really wish to speculate too much at present though, it'll be here soon enough anyway