Returning player figuring out Black Orcs

[Karhedron]

Hello,

I used to play Orcs from 4th-7th edition of Warhammer. I have finally decided to dust off the old collection and see how they fit into the brave new Age of Sigmar.

I was quite fond of Black Orcs back in the day but these seem to have disappeared (at least in matched play) and have morphed into Ardboyz. Black Orcs feature in the online Warscrolls but not anywhere else and they do not have points values in the General's Handbook (unless I have missed them). Does this in turn mean that "Ironjawz Bigmob" (in the online warscrolls) cannot be used in matched play? I assume I cannot simply substitute Ardboyz instead.

Sorry if this is a simple question, I just want to make sure I understand what I can do with my old units going forwards. Am I right that the bets option is get the Ironjawz book and run them as Ardboyz if I am doing matched play?

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey @Karhedron,

Welcome to the forum and great to hear you're looking to try out your old Orcs in AoS.

You are correct, Black Orcs no longer exist and are now Ardboys. In turn this does invalidate the older battalion as you thought. However if you are just playing some initial games with your mates, they may not mind the substitution whilst you get a feel for the game and if you wish to progress with it.

Rather than the Ironjawz Battletome, I'd actually recommend you pick up the Grand Alliance: Destruction book. It's much cheaper and has loads of warscrolls you may find useful if transferring an old WFB army into AoS. The old things to note is that I think the Bonesplitterz and Beastclaw Raiders scrolls in there will be out of date as their Battletomes came out after that book so there may be changes.

The only thing you don't get with the GA: Destruction book is Battalions, so if your set on just playing Ironjawz (great choice if so!) then it might be worth getting the Battletome.

Have fun and let us know if you have any other questions!
Chris

[Karhedron]

Thanks for the welcome. I have amassed enough stuff over the years that I don't think I will need to buy too much new stuff.

I have heard that shooting is often more significant in AoS than it was in WHFB, do you feel this is true? If so, does it put Orcs at a disadvantage? Any handy tricks I should know about or is it still mainly a case of get the ladz together and starting bashing heads as quickly as possible?

I often used to run a pair of NG archer units with Fanatics to anchor my flanks, looking at the warscrolls, this still looks like a decent approach although I guess Fanatics now fight normally in melee so won't hang around as long. At least I won't have to worry about them heading back through my own units. :D.

[Chris Tomlin]

@Karhedron,

At the moment we are seeing a lot of shooting to be honest. That's not all bad news for Orruks and Destruction in general though.

When you get a chance to look at The General's Handbook you will see that the Destruction Battle Trait affords extra movement to our units that are near Leaders, which allows us to get up close and personal with gunlines in a suitably quick fashion (individual factions may have further movement buffs - the Ironjawz Ironfist Battalion for example).

Also we have some decent shooting options of our own if you want to fight fire with fire; Thundertusks, Savage Orruk Arrowboyz (most notably in the Kunnin Rukk Battalion) and Grot Spear Chukkas are all very solid.

The Grot Fanatics are great at blocking opponents from charging as they are released in the opponents Charge Phase. They rarely do any damage but their purpose is purely to hold up advancing forces.

Hope this helps. Once you've had a read of the scrolls, start posting up some lists and we can help you out.

Chris