Ironjawz or Gutbustas/Ogors?

[Malios]

Good afternoon fellow hobbyists,

With the Legion of Azgorh having exhausted my current hobby budget and time, I'm considering this as more of a future endeavour for the next project.

The concept of an army that emphasises "big and mean is best" appeals to me from a hobbyist perspective: the low model count and model size allows untold individualism which contrasts greatly against the disciplined, faceless, rank and file aesthetic of the chaos dwarves. This naturally led me to destruction and in particular the Ironjaws and Gutbustas ranges.

But, seeing as this is a broad hobby, using the army on the table is equally as important as its appearance in the cupboard. I don't expect to win first place or even third place every time so long as, win or lose, the army is fun to play with and both me and the opponent enjoy the game.

The question however... is which to choose between the two? Both from what I can see have their pros and cons:

Ironjaws:

They're really big orks (which is awesome), their models are modern (not to mention excellent looking: the warboss models and brutes alone!) which meams they're not going anywhere any time soon and the army has allegiance abilities as well as some reliable (if expensive) battalions. The drawbacks being that they're a pure melee army (which can be mitigated by allies to some extent) and relatively slow for a melee army if you're not lucky with your battalion / allegiance ability rolls.

Meanwhile the gutbustas:

Are even bigger again then the ironjaws and appear (at face value) much more well rounded as an army with a balanced mix of mobility, hard hitting infantry, shooting abilities and cheap grots if points are a bit short or bodies are needed. The big  downsides of gutbustas I see however is no allegiance abilities (unless running as destruction), no battalions in matched play and that they are a legacy from warhammer fantasy: they're mostly order direct from GW which means with time they'll slowly disappear as other ranges have.

Now, some of the above points may change in the future with new model releases or updates in the general's handbooks, but practice is better then theory. I'd like the community's opinions on how each go on the tabletop: you guys and girls are the subject matter experts after all. 

Is it worth going with the more reliable Ironjaws who are guaranteed future support and updates? Or do you take the risk with gutbustas?

 Thanks for your input.

[Vasshpit]

I'd go Ironjawz. 

My reasons are purely opinion They're not going anywhere as well as rumors of late whispering that their 2nd wave is coming fairly soon as well. 

[Malakree]

Also the Gutbusters haven't been repackaged (square bases ?), are awkwardly sized unit wise (units of 3/6/9/12 box comes as 4) and don't have any value boxes. 

Ironjawz on the other hand are all sigmar (not wfb), have both the start collecting and skirmish boxes plus they get the Maw-Krusha which is a fantastic model all on its own!

[Kramer]

I love the gutbusters. So ogors all the wayz.... except the new announcement that every GA is getting some love.  so whatever you like to paint until then.. but that’s not much of an advice I know. 

[Peter (Age of Miniatures)]

I have tried running several Gutbusters only lists. Competitively they have a rough time in the current environment. The lack of synergies and the very bad Grand Alliance Destruction Allegiance makes them fall way behind other armies. That said, I am pretty certain it was a Gutbuster face on the picture regarding the new edition of AoS. That could mean nothing at all and it could mean a Gutbuster battletome will be incoming (after the new edition, new starter set, magic book and so on).  For what it is worth I have dusted off my old Gutbusters models in hopes of having them all completed when something could potentially happen. Ogre hype!

Having recently assembled a few of the gutbusters from the sprue, the kits are really showing how old they are. The ironjawz (with the exception of the Hardboys) are exceptional kits.

I have no idea on the validity of Ironjawz wave two, but I find the range quite lacking in options as is. The Ironjawz army is a more competitive (right now) than Gutbusters, but that could all change in the near future. Overall I think the competitive advantage with the Ironjawz is so small that it should not really be the main selling point for your right now.

In the end, I think you should go with what you find more aesthetically pleasing and what suits your flavour in terms of lore.

[RuneBrush]

3 hours ago, AgeofsigmarEU said:

That said, I am pretty certain it was a Gutbuster face on the picture regarding the new edition of AoS. That could mean nothing at all and it could mean a Gutbuster battletome will be incoming (after the new edition, new starter set, magic book and so on).

You're 100% right - it is a Gutbuster shown as destruction!  And there weren't any Gutbuster allegiance abilities in the Generals Handbook.  My own prediction is that we may see a rapid fire battletome release schedule after the new rules are released (in the same way we've had for Codexes in 40k)

[Peter (Age of Miniatures)]

I had not  thought about the rapid fire release possibility. But you are right that they could have a lot of stuff in the pipeline ready for a new edition. Bettet get painting some gutbusters!