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

[Dez]

Love the idea of making them trip over themselves. Sounds like it was a tough game.

[N_Watson]

Yup I have been absent for the most part due to WoW legion. Still love this thread though and plan on startingmy own at some point 

[Chris Tomlin]

Wassup Wednesday Weirdnobs?

22 hours ago, Nico said:

Sounds like a truly dreadful match up, but a fun game.

The only thing I can think of would be to take advantage of your superior mobility. Maybe move everything sideways to one flank turn one, then wait until you might get a double turn, then advance and focus fire. Stay out of Gateway range. The reason this can work is that the Khorne body fest starts getting in its own way if it has to move diagonally. The unit at the front rolls a low run and blocks the whole convoy, the Wrathbros fall behind the front line etc.. Here you don't have objectives to worry about immediately either.

It's still a long shot as his combat buffs are just plain better.

That's an interesting idea. Do you think make the move before the objectives drop then react again? The army does move well in a reactionary fashion...I think some people it's only good for rushing forwards with! Staying out of Gateway range is tricky if he gets a double turn. Would be interesting to try again and play it differently.

21 hours ago, Dez said:

Love the idea of making them trip over themselves. Sounds like it was a tough game.

Indeed it was, but it's a good example that tough and fun aren't mutually exclusive.

19 hours ago, N_Watson said:

Yup I have been absent for the most part due to WoW legion. Still love this thread though and plan on startingmy own at some point 

Haha! I love that WoW has impacted on a bunch of Destruction players posting haha! I'll admit I've been considering it of late. I wonder if that's @Cowboy Boots Matt excuse as well...though I think his new job might be a fairer one.

So after getting beasted by The Face in the first round, who would I find myself up against round 2?

Game 13 - The Warlords - Round Two vs Tim Fisher @Bananaman (Moonclan)

Wow! Out of a field of 100 I reckon I knew 25ish people well (very unusual) and after a friendly first game I had once again struck gold by getting drawn against Mr Mierce. I've known Tim for years, having admired (and by inspired by) his painting online before meeting him when we both worked for GW and then on the Tournament scene back in 6th ed WFB. We have played a couple of times over the years, but not at Age of Sigmar, so I was looking forward to this as you'll always have a laugh and some top banter with Tim.

I'll state up front that I think I may have been a bit drunk come this end of this game as I am not 100% sure on the result!! Since the event and by process of elimination, I have deduced that this must have been Blood & Glory!
Tim was fielding a Moonclan army made up predominantly of Kev Adams metal Night Goblin sculpts, which are just fantastic and full of character. Like me Tim had powered out his army in a relatively short space of time, putting in hours in the morning and lunchbreaks (something I am not capable of doing!). It looked fantastic and was to a really strong standard.
His army included the Moonclan battalion, Hooded Villian, Skarsnik, 2 Shaman, 2 Manglers, Colossal, 3 units of Grots, 4 Fanatics, 2 units of Squigs, Herders and Squig Hoppers. Think that was it? I should have a pretty good handle on what was in this list as you will find out in later update.

Tim ran through some of the fruitier elements in his army, including the battalion. I had heard about the potential combos on Bravery One, but I guess it either hadn't sunk in, or I assumed it was embellished (Like when they assumed all rolls are 6's hahaha!)...so basically, I may be blaming Nathan Prescott for any potential upsets you might be about to read!!
I won first turn and allowed Tim to go first. He didn't really hang around and pushed forward with his three big Squigs, advancing slightly steadier with other units whilst still holding his two objectives with solid blocks. In my turn (and subequent double I believe) I was equally agressive, knowing I had to take down the Manglers on my terms. The one from the Batallion had been suped up with the buffs, so I smashed that off with 10 Brutes before it could attack. Krunk and 5 Brutes made work of the other one, whilst the Gore-gruntas and Ardnob took a little more time on the Colossal, actually taking some heavy damage in return. I think I may have needed some Brute support here.
So it was looking good as I (thought I) had removed the main damage output and began to pile into the Grots. The 10 Brutes were marching across the table and got stuck into the Squigs and Grots holding his objective on my right, eventually taking that. Timmy moved away from his other objective to add reinforcements to the battle on that side. I saw an opening for the Cabbage to get into the back near the final objective, help the Brutes clear off the remaining Grots and take the game. In my head, I had the Major Victory tied up and completely took my foot off the gas. Mega mistake. Tim buffed up the Hooded Villian, chucked him into the Cabbage and proceeded to deleted me about 3 times over (literally!!). Wow. I had honestly not expected it to actually work like that and completely underestimated.
Whatever you've heard, it's true!! Haha I was totally shocked, but loved it. It's amazing. It's not in the least bit bent as all this power is on a 4 wound model with a 5+ save, so whatever!
Anyway, this definitely threw me off my game a little bit and Tim found himself back in the game for a turn or two. However the war of attrition actually favoured me in this instance as once the Villian went down and he lost Inspiring Presence, the Grots started to fall and eventually the Ironjawz were able to claim the spoils after a multi-turn grind in the centre.
Now...the interesting thing here is that I don't know the result. I thought I'd been telling people it was only a Minor, however it was listed as a Major on the results sheet that was handed out at the end of the Tournament. Now I know I would have checked my results that I handed in personally, in fact Timmy even drew a d!ck on it for me. So either I did get onto that last objective and it was a Major, or perhaps the guys put it in wrong (easily done, especially with so many players). Who knows, in reality it doesn't really matter one bit I guess...well, other than to @Andy Talbot! Shame they didn't hand out the scorecards at the end so I could've checked my end though.

Either way, it was a fantastic game and visually very striking with both armies looking good. Something quite cinematic about the Brutes duffin' up da big Squigs before wading into hordes of tiny Grots!

Result - Major/Minor(?!) Victory

Thanks for reading! Come back later for more!

 

Edited September 21, 2016 by Chris Tomlin

[Nico]

Quote

That's an interesting idea. Do you think make the move before the objectives drop then react again? The army does move well in a reactionary fashion...I think some people it's only good for rushing forwards with! Staying out of Gateway range is tricky if he gets a double turn. Would be interesting to try again and play it differently.

Yeah - move before the objectives come down. I played Adam Aelford's Bloodbound at Firestorm Fours and did this to him - deployed everything off to one side, funneled him using a big building. Let him charge into Clanrats with Stormvermin behind, counterpunch with Warpfire Throwers and Shock Gauntlet dudes.

[Chris Tomlin]

Guys,

Don't think I'll get time today for game 3, so will persevere next week. Gonna be lagging a bit what with all the tournaments, but will catch up eventually. No game will be missed....if anyone cares!!

The new TBS episode came out yesterday, which due to scheduling is just a solo show. You can hear me discussing Ironjawz and my games with them at Brothers of Sigmar and Warlords if you can't be bothered reading the reports.

Check out the Podcast section of this forum to find it, or search The Black Sun on iTunes, or visit www.theblacksun.co.uk

Wish me luck at Facehammer...catch up with you next week.

[Bowlzee]

1 hour ago, Chris Tomlin said:

No game will be missed....if anyone cares!!

I care. I've already got 4 armies in AoS, no new ones until they are fully painted... Then it's on to some Green Skins   This post has been very informative  

[Chris Tomlin]

1 hour ago, Bowlzee said:

I care. I've already got 4 armies in AoS, no new ones until they are fully painted... Then it's on to some Green Skins   This post has been very informative  

Cheers man, glad you've found the thread useful.

If nothing else I enjoy keeping a record of all my games etc. The delay in getting the reports up is an issue of time, not willingness.

Got so much to photograph and share as well!!

Forgot to mention earlier, but my #wipwednesday video on Twitter has a sneak peak at the other 9 Yoofs I'm in the middle of converting as well as a pic of my Cabbage with an extra highlight ready for this weekend.

[Donal]

Really enjoying the thread Chris, and the podcast was a nice summary. Stop whining about people not wanting to listen to you talk to yourself  

Good luck at Facehammer, I'm looking forward to seeing these guys in the flesh at Clash!

[Chris Tomlin]

2 hours ago, Donal said:

Really enjoying the thread Chris, and the podcast was a nice summary. Stop whining about people not wanting to listen to you talk to yourself  

Good luck at Facehammer, I'm looking forward to seeing these guys in the flesh at Clash!

Cheers you lovely hetero man!  Great to see you on the forums.

Honestly, the solo show is a pretty weird thing to record/release IMO, but if people get something out of it then all good - the music is pretty banging if nothing else!

I'll have a gander at your thread when I'm not so busy.

This army will indeed be at Clash...I am hoping to be able to get my Rogue Idol done by then, but the weeks are falling away so unsure if I'll have time.

[Dez]

I enjoy reading them, I'll have to listen to the podcast as well. I'm interested in hearing how your games are going!

I feel like Ironjawz are one sided for me, but it could be it's a fledgeling area. I'm just mowing through people and feeling guilty. I even try and use some bad tactics...Brutes just do the work.

[Ryan Taylor]

Please keep the tread going!

 

This has been an awesome thread and I get to live vicariously through your experiences so I can see how the Jawz work in the field before starting my own. Heading to the LVO and need all the help I can get in selecting a list. 

 

Any further help you can provide would be great. I suck at making lists. 

[N_Watson]

Loving the write up of these battles. Really helping me when it comes to learning the game and Ironjawz.    

Looking forward to hearing how you get on this weekend. Keeping an eye on twitter! 

[Chris Tomlin]

Good morning Megabosses!!!

Hope you are all doing well.

Man things have been crazy for me recently, its literally; work, paint, sleep, repeat in the weeks and then tournaments at the weekend. Utterly bananas...and it's no different this week as I leave work this afternoon to head up to Cheltenham with @Paul Buckler for the Warchiefs GT!

The time off at work has meant I'm condensing my workload over fewer days, creating a much busier time and in turn, less TGA! So yeh, not much time for anything else at present.

I am way way behind on battle reports...after this weekend I will have 14 tournament games still to post about. These will all be covered I promise. Don't want to leave any out and intend for this to be a comprehensive log of my games.

Obviously there are plethora of photos still to take a show off, again this 100% will happen. I'm super proud of my army and want to share it with you all.

I am utterly loving the game, tournaments and indeed Ironjawz at present, so please don't take my absence as anything other than me being super busy. Can't wait to get back on here and spam the Destruction sub forum again!!!  

See you all soon!!

Chris

On ‎22‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 5:31 PM, Ryan Taylor said:

Please keep the tread going!

 

This has been an awesome thread and I get to live vicariously through your experiences so I can see how the Jawz work in the field before starting my own. Heading to the LVO and need all the help I can get in selecting a list. 

 

Any further help you can provide would be great. I suck at making lists. 

Thanks a lot Ryan! Glad you're finding the thread informative. Do you have your own? When things settle down I'll check it out.

On ‎22‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 5:27 PM, Dez said:

I enjoy reading them, I'll have to listen to the podcast as well. I'm interested in hearing how your games are going!

I feel like Ironjawz are one sided for me, but it could be it's a fledgeling area. I'm just mowing through people and feeling guilty. I even try and use some bad tactics...Brutes just do the work.

Yeh check out the podcast man! The latest one is literally just me solo chatting Ironjawz pretty much!

I'm really interested in the style of games and quality of opposition you are getting (honestly not meant at all disrespectfully - quality might be the wrong word) if you are finding Ironjawz that much of a win button!! In competitive play, they simply aren't that good, I can assure you of that!

On ‎24‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 8:02 AM, N_Watson said:

Loving the write up of these battles. Really helping me when it comes to learning the game and Ironjawz.    

Looking forward to hearing how you get on this weekend. Keeping an eye on twitter! 

Cheers man, comments like this mean a lot and really spur me on. You'll have seen from Twitter I did ok!  

Thanks again everyone,

The Megaboss x

Edited September 30, 2016 by Chris Tomlin

[N_Watson]

Ye, I was keeping an eye on the ironjawz/destruction armies at the tournament and watched what I could on twitch. I was working on the Saturday and they don't seem to have posted the recordings like GW did for their tournament so I missed the majority of it. 

Managed my first minor victory vs the sylvaneth army I have played a bunch. It was only a 1500 point game and he didn't have his Alarielle and Druthu combo but after getting smashed by him so many times I was well stoked. 

I also played a game vs Ironjawz as well which was hilarious. He had Gordrakk so it was like a power struggle between him and my Megaboss. Managed to kill 2 ardboys with crushing bulk wiping them out, then charged into his Gordrakk to kill him with crushing bulk, then charged into his warchanter almost killing him with it... 

Looking at this for my list : 

Megaboss on Mawcrusher - Hagrid and Norbert (reunited at last)

Megaboss Gary

Ardnob Prince Albert / Wierdnob Duncan (Managed to get 2 foot of gorks off while next to arcane scenery and 20 models nearby in one game. Thoughts??) 

Warchanter Disco Steve

10 Brutes 2"

5 Brutes 1"

10 Ardboys

10 Ardboys

10 Ardboys

Ironfist

 

You changing your list up at all?
Thanks again for the thread. 

Edited September 30, 2016 by N_Watson

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey,

Hope you all had a good weekend?

So...another weekend gone, another tournament done! Wow, that's been a pretty mental few weeks I gotta say. Whilst I am so psyched for Warhammer at the moment, I am breathing a slight sigh of relief that my next Tournament isn't for 4 weeks. So gives me a bit of time to catch up on some other bits and get this thread in order (finally!).

I think at this stage it's fair to say I am unlikely to go back and add photos to the battle reports and I think in general I will keep them to Twitter. The way I go about posting makes it hard to add photos in this way. That said, I need to take some good pics of my army this week to add to this thread, the Gallery and also over on @The Stronghold - been promising that for weeks now!!
I actually had a great conversation yesterday about my army, paintwise and whilst I was considering calling this 2k done and moving on to other stuff, I now have some ideas for further improving it. So much I want to do, my brain is buzzing with ideas and I'm so motivated at present. That said, I think I'll give myself a few days off painting this week.

Shall we have a look at some other battle reports then? We are going as far back as 4 weeks to Warlords here so you'll forgive a lack of detail. I did go through all these on The Black Sun podcast so you can check that out (although I think I recommend coming here in that!).

Game 14 - The Warlords - Round Three vs Tris Buckroyd (Death)

This round was Escalation and perhaps surprisingly, was my first time playing this battleplan. After two great opponents, I was pleased to see Tris opposite me game three. Whilst I didn't know him well, I knew of him going way back into 6th edition tournaments at Warhammer World (back in my Tema Shenanigans days) and knew he was a super nice guy.
His army was pretty strong I felt; Vampire on Zombie Dragon, Winged Vampire, Corpse Cart, 50 Zombies (in 3 units, they mobbed up T1), Mourngul, Vargheists, Spirit Hosts, Dire Wolves and maybe a couple of other little bits.
Initially, I was quite confident and have played escalation twice more since this, it seems I always feel like this! I pop down 10 Brutes centrally, then some Ardboyz on one flank and 5 Brutes on the other (to challenge the two side objectives). They are pretty solid drops and I can move up speedily to claim all objectives quickly. However my opponent then brings on a bunch of their good stuff and my confidence fades!!
I think my mistake here was chucking the unit of 10 Brutes (and then the Megaboss and 5 more Brutes in subsequent turns) into the 50 Zombies. Tris was savvy enough to put Inspiring Presence on them which make it such a slog. He had the Corpse Cart and Zombie Dragon behind them, anchored around a building which made it impossible for the Cabbage to engage thanks to his dinner plate base. The Mourngul and Spirit Hosts savaged the other 5 Brutes and Gore-gruntas holding the right objective. On the left side, it was going ok. I had the Ardboyz and the Ardnob facing off against some Dire Wolves and the Winged Vampire, holding out ok and keeping hold of that one for a number of turns...until 6 Vargheists turned up and literally killed 6 Ardboyz (12 wounds!) in one round, the rest fleeing to Battleshock.
So yeh, that was pretty much that. It was a pretty rough grind and once it got going I felt really up against it and like I was never going to win. It was still super fun, Tris was as nice and friendly as opponent as I'd hoped...oh, and I even remembered a Triumph, after writing it on my hands and spelling out a big "T" with my dice!!
Apologies for the briefness here, but when you put your big hitters into 50 Zombies, not much else really happens other than your perirpheral stuff getting picked apart by his elites. So poor match up play on my behalf, and good play from Tris to be fair.

Result - Loss

As that game was super quick, I found I had plenty of time to head back to the hotel for a shower and a costume change!!
The evenings entertainment at the venue was pretty good to be fair, the quiz was a lot of fun and many drinks were had!
A few of us then went into Nottingham and hit up Rock City until the early hours of Sunday morning, it was a great fun night but my throat wasn't thanking me Sunday morning (and less so Monday). Still, it could be worse, I could've been @Andy Talbot, who is hands down the worst person on a hangover I've ever seen haha!!

Game 15 - The Warlords - Round Four vs @Wayne kemp (Chaos - Skaven)

Suffice to say I was feeling a little fragile, so I was super pleased to see a friendly face at my table in the form of Wayne Kemp. I've known Wayne for a number of years now but have never had the pleasure of playing against him, so this instantly perked me up a bit as I knew we'd have a laugh and the game would be easy going.When I approached the table, Wayne was having a Warhammer TV interview with the legendary Duncan Rhodes, who upon finishing had a good look over my army and complimented it...my heart melted!  
This battleplan was Border War (GHOUL PATROL!), my favourite and most played of the Matched Play battleplans. Wayne's army was a mixed, balanced affair...a bit of a @Gmac2610 army (one of everything!!). He had (roughly); Arch Warlorck, Warlock, Warlord, Clanrats, Stormvermin, Jezzails, Rat Ogres, Stormfiends, Doomwheel, Warpfire Thrower and maybe something else? That sounds about right.
So this is one of the battleplans I like to go first in, using all my extra movement to pick up some good positions whilst still claiming the middle two objectives, giving me a nice 5-0 lead. This does leave you open to the double turn and unfortunately I got hit by that here...hit pretty hard!! Wayne's magic and shooting was off the chart, by the time my T2 had come around I'd lost Megaboss Krunk and 19 of my 20 Brutes. Utter carnage. I've honestly never seen anything like it. I actually think only 2 of those Brutes were lost to battleshock as well, the rest were straight kills. Savage.
I had to laugh...as lets be honest, it's that or cry. That said, this is the beauty of Age of Sigmar, I was still really really in this game. To the point it was currently an uphil battle for Wayne. However, I think the war of attrition really took it's toll. I just had so little left. The Cabbage, with the Talisman of Protection (super useful against Skaven) needed the game of his life...and he nearly had it! Over a few combat rounds he finished off the Stormvermin (a few remaining Brutes had made a bit of dent here) and had the Clanrats. This left him with a charge onto the Jezzails and more importantly, his objective. At this stage I was still holding my own and one of the middle ones (just!).
In an inspired move by Wayne, he actually charged the Arch Warlock into the Cabbage. He was likely to die, but with his good armour save (augmented with a Mystic Shield) he had a chance to survive, pinning the Cabbage and stopping me getting into the backfield. Due to that stupid dinner plate base, I wouldn't be able to retreat to a position that would allow me to claim (not able to clear 3"). I'm pretty sure anyone reading this will have guessed it, the Arch Warlock tanked the Cabbage, not even taking a single wound. Ouch!
From there it all went downhill. The Stormfiends and Rat ogres, now free to leave the central objective without fear of me being able to take it, moved agressively towards my objective, eventually taking this. The Gore-gruntas were ground off by the Doomwheel (plus some shooting) and eventually the Cabbage also fell to magic and shooting...not a single Orruk survived. Utterly brutal. Wayne the game!!!

Result - Loss

If my game vs @Russ Veal was rough and went badly, I don't know what this was! Wayne was a complete gent throughout and kept apologising for "luck". Sure, 6 Jezzails rolling 5 sixes to hit (so 10 mortal wounds) IS lucky, of course it is. However, as I said to him, all his target selection was spot on, he made the right moves (including some really good ones) and in general just played really well. I did not walk away from the game bemoaning luck one bit. If you play well and get into good positions you can to some extent make your own luck. It is another tough match up for my army regardless and jokes aside, Wayne is playing a lot of Warhammer at the moment and knows his army well, it counts for a lot.
So yeh, no complaints and it was a fun game regardless of how awfully it went for me.

Ok, I think we'll leave it there for today. Will try to get caught up fully over this week. If I do the reports a bit shorter like this you'll still get the jist of things and they won't drag on any longer than they already have.
Don't worry about the losses above, there are some wins to come I promise (and more losses!!)

@N_Watson, thanks for the post. Nice one on getting the Destructive Bulk chain off...it still hasn't come up in my games! I nearly got it yesterday but did 1/7 4+'s  

Glad to hear you beat Slyvaneth, they are one of my fav armies to play against, just seems to go well. Your list is good, basically just a better version of mine as I hamper myself with the Gore-gruntas!
I do have some variants in mind for "stronger" builds, none of which involve the Cabbage. I will discuss these in details after catching up on my reports.

Thanks for reading,
Megaboss Chris x

[Nico]

Good reports. 

Duncan commenting favourably on my basing was a definite highlight - so I know what you mean!

[N_Watson]

Oooo you got me curious about your theory list. Been toying around with a few myself like a 2 megaboss and lots of brutes. Just not sure how much pain I could bring given how I struggle as is to kill 2+ saves, ignoring rend 1, and save reroll stuff.     

[Fastbear]

Have you tested the weirdfist formation? I only played it once and it worked wonders but I cant see anyone else using it, is it to expensive and risky to be worth it?

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey guys,

Unfortunately not had as much time to write reports as I'd like, but we'll get there! Another 12 Tournament games to report on, plus I will be playing @Forestreveries this Friday - you'll be able to follow that one on Twitter (though a report will follow here). Think I'm going to try out Periscope for the first time if you wish to check in on that.

On ‎03‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 1:41 PM, Nico said:

Good reports. 

Duncan commenting favourably on my basing was a definite highlight - so I know what you mean!

Cheers man, yeah it'd definitely a good feeling  

On ‎03‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 2:58 PM, N_Watson said:

Oooo you got me curious about your theory list. Been toying around with a few myself like a 2 megaboss and lots of brutes. Just not sure how much pain I could bring given how I struggle as is to kill 2+ saves, ignoring rend 1, and save reroll stuff.     

Gonna save that until I've caught up on reports, purely to keep focus in the thread tbh (don't think I'm hiding any awesome tech, it's not anything ground-breaking)...I will say that I am currently assembling another 10 Brutes (to take me up to 30)...so take from that what you will!  

On ‎03‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 11:27 PM, Fastbear said:

Have you tested the weirdfist formation? I only played it once and it worked wonders but I cant see anyone else using it, is it to expensive and risky to be worth it?

In time I would like to try all Battalions and log my findings. It's too easy to default to the Ironfist. I'm sure there are results to be had with some of the others.

Thanks for reading,

Megaboss Chris x

[N_Watson]

Just saw that you have a periscope battle report up on twitter. Watched the list selection ones so far. More of this! Really good stuff and seems quite simple/non obtrusive way to do a battle report on the fly. 

[Chris Tomlin]

10 minutes ago, N_Watson said:

Just saw that you have a periscope battle report up on twitter. Watched the list selection ones so far. More of this! Really good stuff and seems quite simple/non obtrusive way to do a battle report on the fly. 

Hey, cheers for checking it out man. Was a lot of fun. 

I don't normally come on here over the weekends but did want to point people over to my Twitter feed @the_black_sun - as @N_Watson said I did a Periscope battle report last night with @Forestreveries on a live feed. It's my Ironjawz vs a very well honed Sylvaneth army as discussed on @scrubyandwells latest podcast (worth a listen btw). 

You can still watch the vids now but probably only until this evening as I think they expire after 24hrs. It's split over a few vids. 

If you're unsure on don't have the time, the post game wrap up is worth a watch as we talked over the game and the match up in general. Without video it's essentially a 30 min podcast if you just listen. 

But if you have the time,  scroll through my feed and watch from the start.

It's my first go at it and will certainly do more. I'm aware of some of the issues, most important the camera lock as it switching around is jarring. The rest is just bits I've noted for improvement. 

Lots of fun. I hope some of you check it out

Chris

[Bjarni St.]

Watched it last night, was pretty good. Kept me sane while cleaning and assembling some Dryads (mouldline hell) for my girlfriend.

[Chris Tomlin]

On ‎08‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 6:20 PM, Bjarni St. said:

Watched it last night, was pretty good. Kept me sane while cleaning and assembling some Dryads (mouldline hell) for my girlfriend.

Cheers man, thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it. I hope your girlfriend appreciates the effort there haha!

[Chris Tomlin]

Hello all,

Probably about time I caught up with some more reports here, right! I am very keen to get up to date before Clash of Swords at the end of the month.

I know I still haven't got proper photos of my army up...but I promise, I will. I feel bad for you guys and also for @The Stronghold, who I keep delaying as well. I really am just so busy at the moment. All good though.

Hopefully some of you checked out the periscope and enjoyed it. Very keen to do much more of this going forward. I think it's fun and perhaps useful to others. Maybe we can experiment with some different lists on there as well, that could be interesting.
I think it's now fair to say that I've probably played more tournament games with pure Ironjawz than anyone else, so I like to think I have a decent understanding of the army by now...not saying it means I'm any good mind!! haha!!  

Right, lets have a look...

Game 16 - The Warlords - Round Five vs @Adam Hall (Sylvaneth)

After 4 amazing opponents up until this point, I was really interested to see who I'd get next. On the Friday night we'd talked about our ideal round one opponents and Adam was actually the guy I went for. I hadn't seen Adam for probably years, he's a great guy who I get on with really well and we last played at the first big 8th edition event (Maelstrom's Winter Incursion), playing the penultimate game of the tournament on Table 3 (Adam beat me and went on to podium that event). So this game was a little different as we were pretty low down the tables by this point having won just 1 out of 4 games each (ouch!). I had a bit of a catch up with Adam on the Saturday morning after Game 1 and we talked over our armies etc so I knew what he was packing...and I gotta be honest, I was rubbing my hands together a little (having played the match up before).
I'd been saying before the round that at some point in the last two games, someone was due a real smashing from the Ironjawz! I have this kinda faux confidence when I'm playing Sylvaneth, I'm on a good run against the trees and like to project this, often informing my opponents they'll be lucky to make turn 3  (In a fun, friendly way, of course!).

Adams army was Alarielle, Treelord Ancient, 2x 3 bow Kurnoth, 3 sword Kurnoth, 3 scythe Kurnoth and then Dryads/Revenants for battleline.
I'd previously played @Forestreveries with a similar army (one of our first GH games, so not too much to take from it) in Places of Power and smashed him off in two turns. Unfortunately for Adam, we were playing Places of Power!!
The first issue you'll have noticed is that Adam only has 2 characters, the second being he has no Battalions meaning I get the first turn. This means I can go and sit Krunk, the Cabbage and the Ardnob on objectives straight away instantly giving Adam an uphill battle. Even better, Krunk and the Ardnob managed to be sat in terrain whilst on theirs. As per usual in this battleplan, I move units up with the characters to screen them off. This is possible thanks to the Ironfist affording the units even more move than their heroic counterparts.
The centre of the board was dominated by a huge building, probably 8-10" square, which we rolled up as Damned. Having not played so much AoS, I informed Adam of how awesome this was when combined with Alarielle's healing, giving him +1 to hit on pretty much all his Kurnoth Hunters and Alarielle for essentially no loss (take the D3 mortal wounds, gain the buff, then heal. Amazing). The was potentially a pretty big problem. He also got Mystic Shield off on Alarielle. He then went on the aggressive, teleporting a bunch of Dryads over into a central Wyldwood to face off against the Ardboyz. The two fighty Kurnoth units went for the Ardnob and his Brute retinue (though didn't get into combat until T2). The Treelord and another Dryad unit went up against the Cabbage on his objective, whilst Alarielle barrelled into the 10 Brutes that guarded Krunk. This was going to be quick and messy as predicted (though perhaps not in my favour!!).
Shooting was decent as whilst Alarielle missed, the Kurnoth Hunters did a bunch of damage of Krunk - perhaps even killing him? (Spoiler; Adam got T2 priority and I know that Krunk was dead by the end of that shooting phase). Alarielle wasn't overly effective on the Brutes, doing a few mortal wounds for charging into terrain but only getting one unsaved Wardroth Beetle attack through (even with the +1 to hit), I did some wounds back. The Treelord and Dryads put a bit of a dent in the Cabbage.
As mentioned, Adam got T2. He healed up Alarielle, but due to the wounds suffered from the Brutes opted not to take the Damned terrain (I think). He also failed Mystic Shield, which is huge and what the Brutes were waiting for. The fighty Kurnoth got in on the Brutes and deleted them. Thankfully though the Ardnob was still out of 3 and still holding the objective for my 3rd turn. Krunk died to shooting as mentioned. In combat, a couple more Brutes went down, but without Mystic Shield the remaining 6 put a whole bunch of pain on Alarielle (+1 to hit from Warchanter, rerolling. Nice!). I think at this point the Cabbage finished off the Treelord as well.
My T2 was, as predicted, where it pretty much ended for Adam. Alarielle, already wounded and without Mystic Shield was surrounded by the remnants of the 10 Brutes (think 4-5 left, including the Boss and 2 Gore-choppas), another unit of 5 Brutes and the Gore-gruntas. I should note that the Warchanter had retreated from the combat with the Dryads (alongside the Ardboyz) and had claimed the middle objective that Krunk previously had. In combat I decided to try and delivery the finishing blow to Alarielle with the actual pig attacks from the Gore-gruntas...and did actually manage this, adding salt to the wound!! We called it at that point as he had no characters and no score. Pretty tough battleplan/matchup for Adam I think.

Result - Major Victory

The game was as quick as it was brutal, so it was nice to get to spend some time just chatting with Adam after the game. We discussed some various ideas he had for the army going forward - most of which centred around more Kurnoth Hunters (and why not, they are so good!!).

Anyway, another great game 5/5 so far.
Check back again for the final Warlords report soon! (and who knows...maybe some photos!! )

Cheers for reading,
Chris

[N_Watson]

@Chris Tomlin Loves the Battle report on Periscope. Hope to see more of these. Feel I learned a lot as well, one of my main opponents being Sylvaneth and have struggled with them a lot. Granted, mostly at 1000 - 1500 points as we are building up our armies. 
Look forward to the last match at Warlords. You seem to be doing pretty well at all these tournaments!