Recommended Ironjawz weapon loadouts?

[portablezombie]

This is my first foray into AoS - I have been reading the Battletomes and am liking the stories within. A buddy said that he'd be up for a Skirmish game, and maybe we can go full AoS at some point. Rather than use my existing WFB stuff right now, I picked up the Weirdnob Warband box. I was going to start assembling them today, but I realized that there are more weapon choices than I had originally assumed. Now I'm unsure as to what I should arm these guys with.

I've got the five Brutes and five Ardboys - what loadouts should I give them?

For the Ardboys, I figured that the Choppa and Smasha combo would work the best - the extra attack on a 4+ would be more useful than a 6+ save (and I always roll poorly anyway.

I'm really stuck on the Brutes though - do I go for the extra attack of the Brute Choppas, the range of the Gore Hacka, or the extra damage (but decreased chance to hit) of the Gore Choppa?

What's the consensus?

[BunkhouseBuster]

For my Ardboys, I have mostly the Big Choppas, since my tactic with my Ironjawz is to throw as many Rending attacks at my enemy as possible, though I have a few with the double Choppas and Smashas for extra attacks, especially since I occasionally face off against Seraphon that ignores -1 Rend.  I haven't tried them yet with Shields, but in theory it could be helpful if your dice are hot.

For Brutes, I like the Choppas, as more attacks are sometimes more useful.  And if you want the range, put in the Gore-choppa, as it is 2 inch range on its own, which is cool since not many units get to have mixed-range melee weapons without being cavalry.  I also always recommend the Klaw and Smasha for the Brute Boss, since that -2 Rend is very useful against many big targets.

Going with Gore-gruntas, I wouldn't bother with the 2 inch reach weapons.  Hitting on 4+ is a drag, and the extra range on Gore-gruntas is hardly an issue in my experience.

[Vaux]

Ardboyz are an odd bunch. Their loadout really depends on your opponent... if he has almost no armor... Choppa and Smasha are really nice, but if they are armored (3+ or 4+) then the Big Choppas are also good. Thing with them is you can mixmatch them how you like, they are not one of those units that can only use one weapon. My personal preference is a mix of Choppa and Smasha and Shields to absorb some damage. But like I said they are flexibel.

For the Brutes it's simple: Small units go for Bruta Choppas, if you are using 10 or even 15 (yeah Chris Tomlin I am looking at your Megabrute General unit) then go for Gore Hackas, because you want as many attacks as possible in melee range and there the extra range helps.

[Solaris]

For the Ardboys, Choppas and Smashas are the best choice in 90% of the cases, even against good armor. If I remember correctly, break even is at 3+ save. This means that Big Choppas are better against 2+ saves or 4+ rerollable saves, but that Choppas and Smashas are as good against 3+ saves and better against anything worse than 3+. There have been plenty of threads on the topic, and you can find the math in one of them if you're interested.

The Brutes aren't as clear cut - for the Boss, the Claw and Smasha combo is always the best. For the rest, it depends on the size of the unit. In Skirmish, I'd always go with the Brute Choppas. However, if you intend to run a unit of 15 in AoS at any point, Gore-hackas are the way to go. Regardless, you should always give one guy in five the Gore-choppa.

[portablezombie]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Weapon variations are great, but it really makes things tough on a new player - you don't want to get stuck modeling your troops into a build that is absolutely terrible.

[Vaux]

There is an easy solution: You need more Brutes!

Best will be around 30 so you can build 15 with Gore-hackas and the other 15 for MSU with double Choppa.

[portablezombie]

Oh, absolutely! Like I said, if we enjoy Skirmish, I'll be looking at picking up more models (he says, with the "Start Collecting Ironjawz" box already in his online shopping cart...)

[Stylus]

This may be a cop-out, but I just gave them whatever weapons I liked the look of - even the 'weaker' options look great on the model (like the Boss Choppa with the severed head in the other hand)

As a recommendation, I'd go with Brute Choppas/Pig-Iron Choppas for the Brutes/Gore-Gruntas respectively, because more attacks is better than extra reach (and you'll never have that many models in combat). I really like the Boss Klaw+Brute Smasha for the Brute Boss - it doesn't always work, but when it does, it can be devastating.

For the Ardboyz, again I went with a mix, but that seems to work - Big Choppas to take on the tougher stuff, Paired weapons to get a lot of dice rolling, and a couple of shields for those 6+ saves (with two wounds apiece, I found myself using it more that I thought).

I think Ironjawz are a great army to get started with - lots of fun, but nothing too complicated, and you can get up to 2000pts with just 40-50 models.

[Tuluth]

I'm going to focus on Skirmish right now, since that's what you're playing. There are some other good threads in the forum that go into depth (including math!) with outfitting all the units.

So currently, your plan for the 'Ardboyz is good. Going with a mix of dual wield and Big Choppas may be beneficial depending on what your friend's army is. If it has high armor (Stormcast, Ironjawz) then you'll want to take more rend weapons. Low armor, then the dual wield is typically better. If you would like them to possibly be more tanky. then the shield is good. But as you said, you don't roll well.

Brutes are a different story. For skirmish, definitely go with the Brute Choppas + Gore-Choppa + Boss Klaw. The Klaw is superior to the Boss Choppa on the math side, and the -2 rend  on the Smasha will help a lot (especially against any Stormcast hero with their +3 saves). Gore-Choppa is ALWAYS a priority. If you're doing a grow league, it'll either be your first or second brute (vs the boss). The Two Brute Choppas will just be better in a Skirmish scenario, since you're not worrying about ranks to hack over.