Kowbasher

Ran this Wednesday in my rematch against Fyreslayers. His force was built around a 30 strong unit of Auric Hearthguard whose Magmapokes were terrifying to my monsters. (getting +1 Damage against them) He did bring Gotrek as his ally - the first time we've put him to the table and I ended up a bit salty about it haha. My list: Gameplan was to have the Wardokk stack defensive magic and dance on Savage Orruks, getting them a 3+/6++ in close combat, while the Maniac makes the Arrowboys a delete button to anything within 18". Not going to breakdown the whole fight, but some observations: Savage Orruks with Stikkas are solid. The defensive buffs make them surprisingly resilient and the mass of attacks can tear most things down. 30 Arrowboyz make people nervous. They single handedly kept Gotrek out of the fight for an extra turn until his charging Runefather on Magmadroth got a lucky charge and pinned them down. (who they promptly killed in the shooting phase next turn) 6 Waaagh! points (WP) from Gordrakk is so good, but his resilience is so lacking compared to a normal MegaBoss with a few defensive artifacts. Plus his command ability providing +1 to hit feels redundant given the Big Waaagh! allegiance ability. He's super killy - starting to think he might not be worth the points? Will try running Big Waaagh! without him and see if I'm missing the WP generation. Gortek is dumb and I hate him haha. Kidding aside, when he finally got into combat, I can see why people might outright refuse to play against him. He deleted 30 Arrowboyz without breaking a sweat - and took on Gordrakk in a lucky long charge and proceeded to deal 10 wounds, only taking 3 in return. For someone 20 points cheaper than Gordrakk, I was hoping the scales would have been more balanced, but his d6 mortal wounds and 4+/3++ is insane. Lore or not, it was not fun and this is where I admittedly got salty. My giant did nothing again. Everytime I run him, he gets shot down turn 1, or rolls doubles on the charge and smacks my guys for being drunk. Rather have Gore-gruntas for 160pts. Warboss on Wyvern spent the majority of the game out of range of the Auric Hearthguard's Magmapikes. He got off 1 Waaagh! command ability, but it wasn't needed to win. In theory he's neat, but the model look so weedy compared to the maw-krusha haha. 5 man unit of brutes seemed lackluster without Violent Fury. They fit the points and worked as a screen, but didn't accomplish anything noteworthy beyond helping to kill some Vulkite Berzerkers. I'll be keeping the Arrowboyz and Maniac going forward, but think I'm going to try an Ardfist next and work in a Wurrgog Prophet for some magic shooting and CP generation.

Will be running this list tomorrow in a friendly match against Fyreslayers. Maniac makes the Arrowboyz more killy. Wardokk makes the Savage Orruks more resilient by stacking his dance and Kunnin' Beast Spirits. I'll keep the Warboss on Wyvern near the Savage Orruks and Brutes when they fight, but he should be tough enough to pick off a hero or two as well. The wildcard here is the Aleguzzle Gargant - I love the model and have one lovingly converted to fit the Bonesplitterz theme (same for the Warboss on Wyvern) Open to suggestions on what to do with the points. With Ere We Go, first Hero Phase, I should have 13 Waaagh! points.

On that note - what are folks' thoughts on running Greenskinsz since they've effectively been squatted? Faux pas? More green the better? In particular tournament protocol. I have a few of the older models lying around from the old days and have a Warboss on Wyvern I've been wanting to try bringing to the table for that tasty Waaagh! command ability. (Bonus Question: when an ability gives bonus attacks to "melee weapons" does that effect mount attacks? ex. maw-krusha or gore-gruntas?)

This looks fun - any concerns about not generating Waaagh! points quick enough in the early turns? d6 + 2 + 1 seems low. At best on a hot roll, you'll end up with 9 which only gets you d6 bonus move, Waaagh! Magic, and +1 to Charges. For a Command Point - Ere We Go would maybe generate 5 (if you're clustered together) - bringing you to 14 and you get the 6++.

Ran The Big Waaagh! yesterday in a friendly 2k match again Fyreslayers. Can't recall the scenario as we both proceeded to ignore and tried to bash each other's brains out. Not an expert on Fyreslayers, but from memory he was running: Fyreslayers Leaders: Runefather on foot Runesmiter on foot Runmaster Battlesmith Battleline 10x Vulkite Berzerks (pair of axes) 30x Hearthguard Berzerkers (poleaxe) 30x Hearthguard Berzerkers (poleaxe) Warscroll Battalion Lords of the Lodge 1980pts Big Waaagh! Leaders Gordakk General Mount Trait: Loud'un Savage Big Boss Glowin' Tattooz Warchanter Gold Toof Battleline 20x Arrowboyz 20x Savage Orruks 3x Gore Gruntas 3x Gore Gruntas 5x Brutes Ironfist Big Boss Warscroll Battalion Kunnin' Rukk Ironfist 1990pts We're both newer players to AOS, so we probably both made a bunch of mistakes, but it was a fun match. His basic plan was to buff up the big blobs of Hearthguard and point them at something, keeping his heroes nearby to keep that tasty 4++. My plan was to see how killy they were so I steered right towards them - which was probably my undoing! I deployed first, keeping centerish with the Kunnin Rukk on one flank and the Ironfist on the other. Gordrakk was deployed center. Opposite my rukk and fist were the HG'zekrs. I took first turn as I feared getting caught by a surprised charge if he rolled hot for his Un'gold rune that gives them +2 Mv and +2 Charge. I knew if I could get some Waaagh! points generating first, I'd be able to get some bonuses early. Turn 1 By the end of my Hero Phase I had 13 Waaagh points and was feeling confident sitting having activated the 6++ save. 6 from Gordrakk 2 from Warchanter 5 from Ere We Go command ability I Warchanter buffed and Mighty Destroyer'd the Brutes forward to simultaneously charge on blob of HGZs along with Gordrakk, while I Kunnin moved the Savage Orruks against the other blob. The 60 unbuffed Arrowboyz shots killed one HGZ (all they see catch after moving) and I moved to the charge phase. I successfully got Gordrakk and the Brutes against 1 blob of HGZ and the Savage Orruks charged the 10 man unit of Vulkite Berzerkers. I rolled hot with my Mighty Bulk and score 7 mortal wounds against the HGZ, killing 2 outright with some bad saves! I gained 3 more points of Waaagh! from the Savage Orruk charge, and having Gordrakk and the Savage Orruk in combat, bringing my total up to 16 - just enough to enjoy the +1 to Hit! I popped 'Loud'un' giving the majority of the HGZ -1 to hit and Gordrakk's command ability, picking all 3 units in combat (giving everyone a 2+ to hit!) I chose the Brutes with Violent Fury to fight first, but kinda whiffed my wound rolls, only killing 2. He responded by attacking Gordrakk, but between the -1 hit and some hot saves, I only took 3 wounds in return. Unfortunately the Brutes didn't fair as well and I lost 3 of them in one go. I activated the Savage Orruks and he popped the Vulkite's once per game ability to have his slain models pile-in and fight. I rolled decent and took out 4, losing 2 in return. He hit back, killing 1 more - otherwise not a bad exchange. Gordrakk then took his swings, killing 3-4 more. He popped Inspiring Pressence on the HGZ to stop from losing anymore to battleshock, but held steady. At the end of the turn I was feeling super confident - I should have known better... At the start of his turn he proceeded to choose the Un'gold ability that gives his wound rolls of 6 to be worth +1 damage. He got off all of his prayers (sorry can't recall names) but suffice to say, +hit and re-rolls were everywhere. He shifted his free blob of HGZ to counter charge the Savage Orruks and save his Vulkite, but otherwise didn't charge with anything else. (problem with 30 man squads - no room for activities!) Skip ahead to combat, and he activates the HGZ in combat with Gordakk and the Brute leftovers proceeds to kill everything without breaking a sweat. The extra point of damage on 6s easily scored 19 wounds on Gordakk as he was rolling a ton of dice for the mob. The Savage Orruks also cave under the might of the other HGZ blob. So many beards... so much sweat... At the end of round 1, I was down Gordakk, 5 brutes, and 20 savage orruk. He was down around 10 hearthgaurd and 5 vulkites. At this point it was kinda clear he had won the match, but I won the roll-off and took first turn - more an experiment to see how much damage the double shot from Kunnin Rukk could do. Spoiler alert - not much against 4++. In the end we had a fun time, but I was a bit dismayed at how tanky those beardies were. It doesn't seem like much on paper, but 5+/4++ is super strong, and I'm still scratching my head if there is a way to fight them head to head. When I play him again later this week, I'll be trying the Big Waaagh! again but with some changes: Dump the Kunnin Rukk and bring 1 mob of 30 Arrowboyz instead Bring more mobs of at least 10 orruks - probably Ard Boyz Pick Gordakk's targets more intelligently - it's tempting to get his into the fight turn 1 to start gaining Wounds and Attacks, but if he's dead you lose 6 Waaagh! points a turn Hope folks find this write-up from a noob helpful!