New guy, new army

[Iron]

Hello everyone,

I recently started buying my way into Age of Sigmar with a bunch of Orruks.

I'm the type of guy that glues most stuff all at once, starts basecoating everything, then finish details on a squad-by-squad level.

Im currently still in the glueing everything phase, thanks to a new book.

So far I've built the following stuff:

15 ironjawz on pigs with pigiron choppas, 30 brutes(2 10-boy squads with spears, 2 5-boy squads with choppas), 1 mawkrusha, big guy on foot, 2 warchanters, 1 mad wizard.

Because of a new book, it's easier than ever to ally in a bunch of Bonesplitter savages, so thats what im glueing right now.

Here comes the inevitable question-part of it all:

I hate the look of the 'Ardboyz (their style of armor just really doesnt fit in), but do want to mostly use Ironjawz in my army on the tabletop. What would be my most sensible option to do with my bonesplitterz? At this moment I can build 10 pigs, 60 walking boyz and 1 Savage Big Boss. 

I think it's best to reserve 10 bodies for big stabbas, wardokks and shamans?

What would be the smart thing to build out of the other 50 guys and 10 pig riders? 

I dont mind: getting more guys to eventually build a stand-alone Bonesplitterz or big waaagh in the future, ally in a trio of stonetrolls, because I love those new models.

I do mind: building those 30 'Ardboyz I got in my "start collecting" boxes. I really dont like them and have mentally excluded them as an option.

Is an Ironjawz army even viable without those things though?

If you reached this point, thanks a lot for your time an patience! 😀

Any advice is very welcome

[MKsmash]

Gonna be honest: I'm getting into Orruks too, so I may not be the best source. BUT:

As far as I know, Ardboyz are rather necessary if you plan on using mostly Ironjawz.

I can't help a whole lot with Bonesplitterz, as I know nothing about them, but Kunnin' Rukk is apparently pretty good. So do that!

[Iron]

Cool, thanks for the input. Gonna look into that  kunnin rukk and what to build for it. My plan with the savages was to replace the role of the ugly ardboys, but might aswell go big waagh and mix en up properly..

[tripchimeras]

I'd say it really depends on how competitive you want to be.  I don't think the drop-off between ard boyz and  brutes is enormous, but ard boyz are definitely going to be the core of a competitive ironjawz list I suspect, though certainly don't take my word for it.  If you hate ard boyz and have all those bonesplitter models as well, I really think your best solution is to just play Big Waagh!  That will allow you to use large blocks of savage orks in the role you would normally be putting ard boyz in, while you can still take your ironjawz fun around them.

Id start with something like plopping a big unit of 30 savage orruk walking guys down, then you'll want 1 shaman and 1 wardokk to support them with +1 armor buffs to get that sweet sweet 3+ armor (or the +1 to hit bonus spell, if they have bows) on them.  Include a Mawcrusha and 1 to 2 warchanters, then sprinkle in the pigs and brutes to taste with whatever is left.  Feels like a good starting point for you to tweak from there as you go.    If you really like how savages are playing, you can always expand to a kunnin ruck of 2 units of 20 shooting boyz with that savage big boss.

If you are dead set on solo Ironjawz, I am sure you can make solo brutes work, you'll just want to keep their leadership issues in mind as you list build, and be prepared to design ways of compensating for their super low body count in how you are going to claim objectives during your games. 

At end of day I think the army is strong enough that unless you want to be tourney competitive, an all Brutes army is prob not going to hold you back in a semi-casual setting.  But if you do want to go competitive, or you are struggling with the Brutes and still want to use a lot of Ironjawz Big Waagh is def the way forward for you.

Edited November 20, 2019 by tripchimeras

[Iron]

Thanks! That was a pretty in-depth breakdown with useful information.

The big thing bugging me the most about ardboyz is that the "cheap grunts" look more elite and sophisticated than the actual elite of the army. Bonesplitterz look nice and crappy in terms of weapons and clothes. Perfect to be the "cheap grunts" in an ironjawz army i think. 

I'll hapily use a Big Waaagh to field my angry green men. I can mentally see a group of ironjawz running into a savage tribe, be idolized for their raw strenght and liking that, so they stick together to counter eachothers weaknesses (which no one would ever admit though). 

The big waagh will be my way forward! (It also lets me paint my armors red without sticking myself to a less-than-awesome allegiance ability) It seems flexible enough to bend to my tastes the way you described it, and makes visual/mental sense too.

Thanks again for the insights! Now im off to work up my anger, throw chickenbones at my girlfriend for not being green enough (which i obviously am) and glue some arms and weapons on my savages.

The "plan" as it now stands is to build 30 savage spearboys, 20 arrowboyz, 2 wardokks, shaman, big boss, 2 big stabbas (because they're so idiotic, can't resist) and give the 10 boarboyz spears to use as 1 blob and get attacks out of the "rear rank" 

This would give me the option to use a boss, and 20 arrows/20 spears as kunnin rukk, or just mash a blob of 30 spears with supporting characters in the mix.