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New player trying to decide on 1st army (Orruk Warclans questions)


NeoSoul

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Hello!

(Disclaimer):
I couldn't find a faction specific section so I'm asking these questions in the appropriate Grand Alliance forums.  I want to get into AOS and I'm having a hard time deciding on which army to go with as many of them look unique and cool.  I watched a long video that roughly went over every faction but it was slightly outdated (not all of the 2nd edition tomes were out yet back then).  The look of the army is my most important criteria as I love to collect miniatures and want to be motivated to paint them.  However, I still want to play the game, I like strategy games and RTS (I normally do well at them) so since I'm having a hard time deciding based off looks, I'm trying to learn a bit more about the different play styles.  I'm not usually a big fan of cookie cutter builds and metas in games, I know it can change a lot but I'm trying not to totally ignore people's comments about some factions severely underperforming as I'd still probably like to be able to win games once in a while once I get decent at it.  The factions that I'm hesitating most between right now are Orruk Warclans, Slaves to Darkness, Maggotkin of Nurgle and Ossiarch Bonereapers.

This one post is about Orruk Warclans.  Here are some pros and cons I'd see with them so far:

Pros:

- Quite possibly my very favorite model in the entire game (Megaboss on Maw-krusha).

- I love the look of the Ironjawz models in general (especially the brutes).

- I often like melee units more than ranged units in games.

- I think that if they kill a unit, they have a RNG chance to snowball and cover more distance?

Cons:

- They seem to be placed rather low on the current tier lists from what I've seen.

- The video I've watched said that they were very reliant on lucky dice rolls and so they weren't as reliable and as strategic as some other factions might be (not sure if it's still the case).

- I love the Ironjawz but I don't like the Bonesplitterz' looks at all (I'm guessing it's mostly old models) and I wouldn't be very tempted to buy and paint those.

- The other Destruction factions don't interest me that much (Trolls are kind of cool though) if ever Grand Alliance is important but I think that can be ignored.

 

So here are my questions:

 

1- I don't quite understand the whole thing about having different types of armies within the same faction.  I know that I can play with only Ironjawz and not buy/use Bonesplitterz' but would this hurt my army potential?  I'm trying to understand if Bonesplitterz are meant to fill in some roles that the Ironjawz can't do and if they're meant to be used together or not necessarily.

2- Can they be used competitively or will it feel like I'm bashing my head against a wall?  I doubt the local players are all tournament experts anyways but since I haven't played AOS, I don't know how big of a deal those tiers are like (it seems like many people agree that Skavens and Flesh-eater Courts are very powerful and hard to deal with while Slaves to Darkness are absolute trash tier and very hard to win with).

3- What makes Ironjawz fun and unique to play with in terms of game play and mechanics?  Do they have something that they're very good at?

4- Any other specific useful information you think I should know about them that could make me interested in them over an other faction?

*Edit 5- I forgot to ask, can the Orruk models from Beastgrave be used or not for AOS?  They're some of the best looking models but since there's only 3 of them, I'm guessing all you can do is replace 3 brutes with them for looks for fun?

Edited by NeoSoul
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13 minutes ago, NeoSoul said:

1- I don't quite understand the whole thing about having different types of armies within the same faction.  I know that I can play with only Ironjawz and not buy/use Bonesplitterz' but would this hurt my army potential?  I'm trying to understand if Bonesplitterz are meant to fill in some roles that the Ironjawz can't do and if they're meant to be used together or not necessarily.

Basically you have 4 big allegiances that serve to separete factions. Inside those you can choose a specific allegiance that tells what units you can use and what extra rules you get (generally the way to go from a competitive view). For Ironjaws they have 2 options: a) Ironjawz Allegiance (just Ironjawz models) or b) Big WAAAGH (Ironjawz + Bonesplitterz+old orruk models). The difference for those two is the bonus you get during play. A mix of both kind of orruks in big Waagh is becoming more popular now, but you can play without them for sure. The main thing Bonesplitterz bring to the army are number of models, some ranged units, good wizards and some fast cavalery. While pure ironjawz can have most of those (magic not much and no ranged unit), Bonesplitterz do it easier. If you are playing the Ironjawz allegiance this don't matter much, you can't use them any way outside of one or two models/units as allies.

I will leave the competitive questions for someone more experienced with them on a tournament scene. I know they had a fair bit of sucess last year, but I don't know how well they are doing after the last battletomes releases.
 

26 minutes ago, NeoSoul said:

3- What makes Ironjawz fun and unique to play with in terms of game play and mechanics?  Do they have something that they're very good at?

They are one of the more iconic melee factions, tought, good armor, good damage. They have some straightforward rules, but with a good amount of deep in them to master with time. The two alleagiance  options while having some similar bonus, offer a good room to experiment with lists and playstyles. If you like melee factions they should be really fun to use.
 

33 minutes ago, NeoSoul said:

4- Any other specific useful information you think I should know about them that could make me interested in them over an other faction?

The only word of caution I would give is to consider that the Ironjawz model range is quietly small. You basically have 4 heroes and 3 normal units and that is it. While the models are really awesome, if you like to have a great diversity of units to choose from, Nurgle and Slaves to Darkness would give you more options.


 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/16/2020 at 10:52 AM, NeoSoul said:

1- I don't quite understand the whole thing about having different types of armies within the same faction.  I know that I can play with only Ironjawz and not buy/use Bonesplitterz' but would this hurt my army potential?  I'm trying to understand if Bonesplitterz are meant to fill in some roles that the Ironjawz can't do and if they're meant to be used together or not necessarily.

2- Can they be used competitively or will it feel like I'm bashing my head against a wall?  I doubt the local players are all tournament experts anyways but since I haven't played AOS, I don't know how big of a deal those tiers are like (it seems like many people agree that Skavens and Flesh-eater Courts are very powerful and hard to deal with while Slaves to Darkness are absolute trash tier and very hard to win with).

3- What makes Ironjawz fun and unique to play with in terms of game play and mechanics?  Do they have something that they're very good at?

4- Any other specific useful information you think I should know about them that could make me interested in them over an other faction?

*Edit 5- I forgot to ask, can the Orruk models from Beastgrave be used or not for AOS?  They're some of the best looking models but since there's only 3 of them, I'm guessing all you can do is replace 3 brutes with them for looks for fun?

I know you posted this a little while ago, but hopefully I can still be helpful.

First and foremost, I think the research that you've done is likely very out of date.

Orruk Warclans (including Ironjawz) is definitely a very competitive faction right now with multiple viable builds. They may not quite be "S" tier but they are definitely up there. FEC and Skaven haven't really been boogeymen for quite a while now, and the game overall is much more balanced than it was when Skaven and FEC were at the top.

I also wouldn't say that Ironjawz is reliant on lucky dice rolls really at all. You can build lists that will be more effective if you make a key roll or two but you can also make effective builds that are not reliant on specific dice rolls. Ironjawz units are also VERY consistent in combat. They tend to hit and wound on 3's or 2's and they have very few if any abilities that trigger only on 6's.

To answer your questions more specifically:

1 - Orruk Warclans allows for a couple of different basic builds:

  • Ironjawz - only Ironjawz units
  • Bonesplitterz - only Bonesplitterz units
  • Big Waaagh - any combination of the two (only IJ, only BS, or mix)

If you only want to use IJ units that's totally fine and can be viable in both IJ builds and Big Waaagh builds. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. If you don't want to use BS units you really don't have to and there are plenty of competitive builds that don't. BS units don't really do anything that IJ units can't also do, they just tend to be a little different (cheaper points per wound, worse armor, little to no rend, a bit faster). In Big Waaagh armies it's often nice to have  some BS because they provide more bodies on the table to help build Waaagh points, but they are far from necessary.

2 - They absolutely can be used competitively. There are some factions that will be difficult matchups, but you should be able to compete against almost any opponent. IJ units and abilities are just all around solid at baseline.

3 - If you like smashing things, then IJ are a good choice. When your units swing they will hit hard against almost anything. There are some opponents where this kind of approach won't work so well (some Seraphon, Fyreslayer and OBR builds, for example) but against most opponents you can be very aggressive. There are several tricks in the faction that can take some getting used to but give a lot of tactical depth. Most revolve around the spell Da Great Green Hand of Gork, which is incredibly good if you can get it off. IJ have several ways to close the distance after teleporting, allowing you to teleport and then charge pretty consistently. Overall the best way to describe IJ is that they are "solid" -- very efficient on offense, quite efficient on defense (although a little vulnerable to high rend/mortal wounds), a bit slow but not really all that slow. Just good all around.

4 - not really, but if you are wanting to learn AoS and try out different armies I highly suggest getting Tabletop Simulator and using it to get some online games in. Slaves to Darkness is much less competitive right now, but the model range is a lot wider and the faction is a lot more flexible overall. Nurgle is in sore need of updates, but given that they are one of the oldest books I'd speculate there is a good chance of them getting updated on the sooner side (but this could still be like a year or more, who knows!) OBR used to be extremely good but was recently nerfed. They are still likely quite competitive though, largely for similar reasons to Ironjawz (albeit with a little bit more variety in the faction and more of a slant toward defense). IJ is a much lower model count army overall though, so that might factor in for you.

5 - You can use the Warhammer Underworlds models in AOS but they tend to not be that good.

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Thanks for the reply.  I did end up going with Ironjawz in the end (my Start to Collect units are all built and primed, I'm waiting on my first box of Brutes that I ordered).  Unfortunately, out of the few local players, one does play Fyreslayer and an other one does play Seraphon so hopefully I can figure out ways to still stand a chance (I might play my first game by the end of the week).  The low model count is a bit of a bummer though but the Maw-krusha, megaboss and brutes all are models that I find look very nice.

I'll have to play and figure out the depth there is to them because so far, from all the Battle Reports I've watched, it only seemed like they charge in and hope for the best (I'm too new to the game to realize the strategic depth to it yet I think).  I'm looking at OBR or Nighthaunt as a possible 2nd army eventually but I'm obviously focused on IJ for right now as I'm just getting into it.

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