Chris Tomlin

Hey, Thanks for a great weekend @jonwarmington - really enjoyed the event, was loads of fun. Awesome to spend so much time with @Paddy O'Sullivan, he was the perfect partner and those Grots are pretty impressive (not as impressive as the shapes he made with the units mind). I'll thank the teams we played in my thread over on the Destruction sub forum as I'll put some short battle reports in there over the next few days, but suffice to say all 5 teams were top guys (and girl) and the games a lot of fun. Well done to all the winners and thanks so much to everyone who voted for my army, genuinely means a lot. It's been a long time since I've painted a Warhammer army "properly" and I'm so happy that all the hours (ALL the hours!) I've put in over the last few weeks have paid off. It nearly killed me and I'm still feeling it now...can barely keep my eyes open at my work desk! The thought of having to do a further 1,000pts in the next 3 weeks for Warlords is soul destroying!! I said before the event I thought it was strange we hadn't seen more AoS doubles events and after playing in one I'm even more convinced they should be more of a thing, works well and is lots of fun. Well done for thinking outside the box Jon! My single bit of feedback would be to maybe get some food in (even just on one of the days)...constant McD's/Subway is graphic!! But that's a minor quibble. Overall a great weekend, thanks again x

Quite fancy this, especially as you boys brought a coachload down for New Dawn in March! @Paul Buckler has expressed some interest and is local to me so we'll see what we can rustle up amongst our combined groups of boyz I'm sure.

@LordDrakonus - Yeh I am quite looking forward to painting the Cabbage, I have a scheme in mind for it. Tbh it'll probably the next thing I paint once my 10 Brutes are finished for this weekend (after painting a bunch of infantry it'll be a nice chance of pace). I did a little progress video late last night which you can see on my twitter feed - @the_black_sun I also slipped and bought the German starter set for Konflikt '47 - Have a Hydra themed army planned for that, but my focus needs to remain Ironjawz as from next Monday I'll have just under 3 weeks to paint the Cabbage, Ardnob, 5 Brutes and 3 Gore Gruntas!

Cheers @Mitzy & @LordDrakonus, glad you boyz like 'em! I didn't want to go ott on the basing, but am happy with it for sure. Interestingly the Gore-gruntas are the first thing in the army I've not had a predetermined plan on how to paint (having imported the scheme directly from my 40K/GorkaMorka Orks). I do have some ideas, but I think I will paint the Cabbage first. Watch this space.

Me and @Paddy O'Sullivan are just finalising our team name at present. Still plenty of painting to be done, but looking forward to the event massively.

Thanks to @Sangfroid @Dez @N_Watson and @Cowboy Boots Matt for the Ardboyz likes so far

Bellowing Tyrant? Yeh that's an idea for sure, if you find they are getting the drop on you then the extra movement might not matter so much (still getting D6 anyways). I myself plan to try out this trait a bit too. The Megaboss was the first Ironjawz model I painted it and I love the job I did so figured I'd always use him. Unfortunately, pre GH he was pretty rubbish as he literally never got into a fight. With Rampaging Destroyers + Ravager I find I can get him into solid positions and the Battle Brew turns him into a bit of a combat beast. So yeh, I'm liking him a lot now. Big Tim?! haha Basing is sand painted Mournfang Brown then washed (brown or black wash is fine). Leave some patches bare and apply Agrellan Earth to these (I use Rhinox Hide as a basecoat, depends how dark you want the cracks). Then drybrush the entire thing with Zamesi Desert (think its called that!) and finally with Screaming Skull. Patches of static grass and black rims to finish. Nice and easy. Pretty simple but looks decent IMO.

Thanks @N_Watson Yeh, Sylvaneth are a very powerful army for sure. That said I think in theory we do ok against them (I'm looking to get in another game vs @Forestreveries now he is more experienced with them). Spirit of Durthu is solid for sure, but the -2 to hit can be negated with a couple of Warchanter buffs (remember it stacks). Throw a unit of Brutes in so that they are rerolling hits thanks to "duff up da big things" and with the rend I'm sure you'll be able to do some damage...at least witling him down so he's not doing a consistent 6 damage anyway! You could also use a Cabbage to scream off some wounds and hit him with the Destructive Bulk. Don't be disheartened, you can do it!

Good morning, Hope everyone had a good weekend? After a reasonably heavy Friday (had to drink away the pain of Suicide Squad!), I had a pretty quiet one and after running some errands was able to crack into some painting ahead of Brothers of Sigmar (1,000pt doubles tournament) this coming weekend. I am pleased to say I finally finished off the Ardboyz. As per usual, rubbish photos, but overall I am happy with how these came out. What do you think? I've also included a group shot so you can see the new basing on the Megaboss etc. Just 10 Brutes to go for the weekn (which I did make some progress on yesterday)... Hope you like them!! I've also purchased; 2x Start Collecting: Ironjawz 2x Savage Orruks Battletome: Beastclaw Raiders So looking forward to plenty more Destruction goodness. @LordDrakonus and @Dez thanks for your thoughts on the Gore-gruntas. I'll have a run out with the Gorefist later this year and let you know how I get on. Have fun, Chris

Cheers bro! Thanks for reading Tbh my experiences with Gore-gruntas so far has been limited to one unit of 3. I do like that there are some differing opinions floating round on the piggies and am very keen to run the Gorefist at some point. I am ordering 2 SC boxes so that I can do this very thing! What do you back them up with? Ardboyz seem a good choice in this type of list for extra bodies on the table.

What is the Ironjawz t-shirt like? I recently picked up the Beast Arises one as I figured the 40k Ork motif on it was close enough. £20 for a fruit of the loom t-shirt though?! **** off!!

Cheer Les (or Lez if you're trying to be cool! haha ), Yeah you pick up on an important point which I think many people miss out on. Having extra movement doesn't just mean pushing everything forward the maximum distance each turn. It is also a huge reactionary/responsive buff as it allows you to reposition to support other units/areas or even retreat (+ move) onto objectives an the such. Nothing worse than movement 4" infantry that finally gets stuck in and then just, well, stuck! Which is what we were before General's Handbook! I see a lot of talk about Ironjawz being awesome. They are simply not unless you are just playing flat out kill scenarios (which is dull). However they are now a feasible army thanks to the General's Handbook for sure as they can compete in an objective based game. Brutes are great. They are. You look at their stats, they look scary. You get hit by them, they smash you up (especially if you've got 4 or more wounds!). However they have one huge downside, which I've talk about many times on this forum - their Bravery. Bravery 6 on a 3 wound model is terrible. By that I mean you pay a lot of points for each one and each that dies to Battleshock really feels like a big big loss. Currently I run 1x 10 (Jagged-hackas) and 2x 5 (Choppas). The unit of 10 are the centre of my army without a doubt. Fantastic unit and I'm definitely going to pick up a couple more boxes so I could run a 2nd unit of 10 with the 'hackas if I wanted to. The perfect storm for them is (IMO); Warchanter buff (+1 to hit. A must. Don't forget you can stack this if you want. Normally not needed, but worth considering). Megaboss buff (re-roll 1's to hits within 5". You'll probably want your Megaboss getting stuck in anyway. Irrelevant if fighting units with 4+ wounds though, thanks to Duff up da Big Things) Inspiring Presence (Whilst the Waaagh! command ability from the Megaboss is brutal on these and will be used at times dependant on where you are, what you're fighting and how many units are about. All in all I prefer the insurance afforded by this command ability. Cover! (+1 save always nice...getting a unit of 10 in it is a rare thing though tbh) Mystical Terrain (Yeah yeah...don't play for Mystical Terrain!! ****** that. Rolling 2+ is easy and Re-roll wounds is awesome!) I think that's about it off the top of my head. There are other things, the Waaagh ability as mentioned, even the Ardnob's command ability is nice for multiple units (probs best for MSU Brutes). Also I didn't mention Mystic Shield and Damned terrain Les, the reason for this is that I really really don't like the Weirdnob Shaman. If I went full Destruction I'd get in a cheeky 60pt Grot Shaman for the Mystic Shield, but at 120pts its a heavy tax. I am a massive massive fan of Damned terrain in most instances, however I don't think the Brutes need it that often what with the Warchanter(s). Sure +2 to hit is very nice for the Boss Grabba and the Gore-Choppa's, so it can be a consideration for sure. Just some of my thoughts anyways...

Hey Kieran, Thanks for the reply, I was beginning to think no one cared about Da Black Sunz adventures anymore!! Yeh unfortunately I think it will take people having to make a conscious effort to go off piste with Ironjawz if we are to see anything really different. We are pretty limited in builds which is, I fear, going to result in most lists looking the same without even necessarily looking at another players build. I am interested to see how some of us get on at events over the next couple of months with these sort of armies. I think 2x 10 Brutes and 2x 10 Ardboyz would probably be what I would consider optimum at the moment. But, I do just love the Gore-grunta models and the units of 5 Brutes have some utility for sure. If I stick with pure Ironjawz much longer I will have to suck it up and paint more Ardboyz, no two ways about it. Agree 100% he is needed in the list. After just one game I already think that (as I believe you advised elsewhere) that having him as your General isn't necessary. Whilst it was his Command Ability that first got me excited, it's actually having such a great damage output on a small footprint that's where he really shines. In that game vs @Andy Talbot, if my Megaboss was General, he could've used that Waaaagh Command Ability to great effect when the Leaders were all tanking it on the hill. Meh, I'll be sticking with the mindset of going for the Mystical terrain!! I acknowledge its not "good" play, but it's entertaining and the buff is soooo good. Be interesting to see what Ironjawz get. It will need to be very good to warrant a move away from the Destruction ones, which fit our army so well. Chris

It's a one of a kind! Handmade by Ryan Golke previously of Pointhammered fame. When I went over to the States for Waaagh!paca in 2014 I was lucky enough to win Best Painted Army (with my Dark Elves) and this bit of kit was my prize. Cost loads to ship back mind! Well worth it, especially now I'm playing Ironjawz! Ok so now that my tiring weekend is out the way (the event I ran went really well by all accounts) I can get to giving a brief report of my game from Friday night. As always, you can see more on my Twitter feed, @the_black_sun, including pics - I'd say I'll post them up here, but going from previous reports that doesn't seem to happen!! Da Black Sunz - Ironjawz 2,000 points (Destruction Allegiance in game) Ardnob (Black Orc Big Boss - General, Command Trait: Ravager) Megaboss on Maw-krusha (Artefact: Meteoric Hammerblade) Megaboss Krunk (Artefact: Battle Brew) Warchanter Ironfist 10 Brutes (Jagged Hackas) 5 Brutes (Choppas) 5 Brutes (Choppas) 10 Ardboyz (9 Big Choppas, 1 shield) 3 Gore-gruntas (Choppas) TOTAL; 1,980 points As you'll see I tried out the Ardnob for the first time. I've been saying I'll drop the Weirdnob for sometime now so figured it was time I actually tried it. Still considering a second Warchanter instead, but I at least wanted to try this guy out. I thought if I made him General I may get to use his command ability for the bigger picture. I gave him the Rend -2 D3 Damage weapon. Game 5 - vs @Andy Talbot (Order - pure Seraphon) Andy's list was (roughly), Slann, Skink Priest, Eternity Warden, 15 Saurus Guard, 2 Bastiladons, 2x 5 Chameleon Skinks, 2x 3 Kroxigor and maybe something else, but I think that's about right. His list was 2,000 points, meaning I'd get a roll on the Triumph table for this first time...at least in theory. Whilst I mentioned it before the game, when it came around it, I completely forgot. Spesh!! In this game we were playing Border War (second game in a row!) and as I out deployed Andy I opted to go first, as I considered it a mistake not to do so vs Gary in the previous game. What was interesting here is that during my deployment, I didn't actually look at Andy's drops once. I knew my preferred method to deploy in this battleplan to go after the objectives and in doing so I'd say that Andy ended up reacting more to me and not vice versa, which is decent. I deployed my large Brute unit, the Ardboyz and the Cabbage next to some Mystical terrain. I know good players will often say to avoid it as the risk outweighs the rewards...but nah, rolling a 2+ is easy and getting rerolls to wounds is #legit! So yeh, turn 1 the Cabbage failed. Obviously. I moved everything up, with 5 Brutes and the Gruntas taking the left objective, the other 5 Brutes taking the right one. The 10 Brutes moved onto the hill in the middle of the table (we play hills as cover) supported by all 3 Leaders on foot, whilst the Ardboyz secured the ojective on my side of the table, this gave me the 5-0 headstart I was looking for. Andy moved up and used his Lascannons (sorry, Bastiladons) to target my unit of 5 Brutes, to try and draw some early Battleshock casualties. Luckily his rolling wasn't great, but still some Brutes went down. He only managed to score 1 Victory Point in the first turn, but got the double turn and pushed forward more aggressively, with the Saurus Guard and Eternity Warden (at least I think it's this guy he had - bounces wounds from Slann) engages one smaller unit of Brutes and the Gruntas on my left. The 2 Basti's and both units of Krox went for the big unit of Brutes. It was pretty messy as by the end of his T2, 12 of my 20 Brutes were dead. The Saurus Guard had taken control of the objective on my left after demolishing the Brutes (though they had killed the Eternity Warden beforehand, as he was a softer target and I was able to get the Boss and Gore-Choppa on him). It was now 5-4 to me. In my T2, the Cabbage (again) and the Ardboyz failed Mystical terrain. It was a bit annoying, but not as bad as it sounds. Not much really happened in my turn though, the Gore-gruntas did no damage to the Saurus Guard (shock) and lost one in return. Megaboss Krunk and the Ardnob had got stuck into the big ruck on the hill, and managed to delete a unit of Krox. Models wise, I was losing the war of attrition. In T3 (I can't remember who went first), Andy suggested that I do Rampaging Destroyers before rolling for Mystical Terrain so I could get away. I declined, saying I couldn't possibly rolled a 3rd successive 1 for the Cabbage. I know what you're thinking, but thankfully I was right! so the Cabbage was now juiced up and ready to #cabbagestomp some scalies! The benefit to sitting in my deployment phase for 2 turns was that he'd attracted no attention and now the fight was right in front of him. He jumped forward and screamed at a Bastiladon (Andy was surprised to learn he had a D6 damage shooting attack that hits on 2+!), needless to say after 2 turns of doing nothing he was spoiling for a fight and promptly took 6 wounds off the dinosaur before smashing it apart with his Destructive Bulk! Boom. After looking like I was going to be taken off after Andy's T2, it had all started to come good. I had lost the unit of 10 Brutes (never a good sign) and thanks to the Saurus Guard's -1 Bravery banner, the last Grunta squealed and fled the table. Basically the Ardboyz and the Brutes on the right valiantly defended their objectives whilst my 4 Leaders (even the Warchanter) got stuck in and smashed up everything. I got no use out of the Ardnobs command ability, but he was very strong in combat. The Rend -2 was very usefull vs the Saurus Guard. We called it on T5 after I won priority and was 22-11 up, making it impossible for Andy to make a late comeback. Result - Major Victory Another great game and really really swingy. I genuinely thought it was all over T2. I may add some further thoughts later as I know that is briefer, less detailed than usual. Thanks for reading!

Thanks @Nico, was great to have you down for it - I really liked your army, that lava glow effect on the Dragon wings in particular is visually stunning. Glad you had a nice time. I'll pass on the food feedback to Loz. Cheers

Well done to @Ben and @Ben Johnson for what looked like a fantastic event from all the coverage on Twitter yesterday. Congratulations to all the winners, chuffed for you all, but especially fellow Megaboss @Mitzy for his Players Choice trophy! Great result. @Ben, I do think we both need to make a concerted effort to get to one of each others events next year (as I'm going to miss out on Blood & Glory as well!) haha!!

Morning all, Just a quick thank you to everyone who attended the event on Saturday, it was a great day and we raised a fantastic £2,011.46 for charity (£1,091.46 from the event, £920 for @Aelford 's army raffle - again thanks so much to Adam for what he did). It really is an amazing amount and I'm a little overwhelmed at the generosity shown, not just by event attendees but also companies that donated to the raffle and also people on twitter who helped by bidding on some of the commemorative glasses. I will post a full TO's report and the results spreadsheet later, along with some photos (you can also check my Twitter feed for plenty of media - @the_black_sun) but for now here are the winners 1st Place Overall - Gary Hennessey - Death (pure Flesh-eater Courts, no Mourngul etc) @The Lost Lighthouse (Gary) 2nd Place Overall - Aaron Bailey - Order (pure Sylvaneth w/ Alarielle) @Forestreveries 3rd Place Overall - Russ Veal - Chaos (Khorne Bloodbound) @Russ Veal Best Army - Ben Chalk - Destruction (Gargants, lots of Gargants) @Bueno Best Sports - Ben Chalk @Bueno Ben Diesel Award of Excellence - Tom Hewitt Best in Alliance (Order) - Aaron Bailey @Forestreveries Best in Alliance (Chaos) - Matthew Lyons (Khorne / Skaven combo) @Cowboy Boots Matt Best in Alliance (Death) - Karl Breakspear (Manfred, Spirit Hosts, Mourngul etc) @Karl Best in Alliance (Destruction) - Ricky Mee (Beastclaw Avalanche - new book not legal at this event) @ChippyRick It should be noted that Best in Alliance trophies were award on the number of Major Victories scored, with Kill Points first tiebreaker. Ricky was the only player to get 3 Major Victories - #undisputedkingofdestruction There were "soft scores" for paint, sports and some miscellaneous points. Hope everyone had a great time, more to come later. Thanks and much love, Chris xx

I'll post a proper reply next week, it's too late, I'm too drunk and have to get up to run a tournament very soon! But before I report on my game vs the Seraphon I thought you might like to see a pic of Megaboss Chris in action For spoilers, check my Twitter feed - @the_black_sun

Haha thanks @Gaz Taylor (I'm definitely taking all that as a compliment! ) To be honest it's been really refreshing to find some focus for the first time in Age of Sigmar. It was great working on a variety of stuff for a while, but dedicating myself to this project will hopefully yield some good results. My plan is certainly to bring Da Black Sunz to Clash, so you can see them in person there. Hopefully I'll get to see yours as well!!

Good work @Paul Buckler - Don't feel like sharing your Bulltribe?

Hi @jonwarmington, I'll liaise with @Paddy O'Sullivan at Rain of Stars on Saturday and we'll get our list sent over on Sunday ok? Still sooooo much painting

Interesting - inspired by Warmachine & Hordes? I know they have used something similar. Sounds cool/different. Looking forward to it.

Cheers @Nixon - It should be a good time for sure. I can try to grab you a page reference or screenshot later on after work, but you'll find it within the matched play section. It's only in a small passage and not highlighted as a big rule or anything (which I found strange!) @Gmac2610 - Good on you for posting your list, would be nice to see a few more of you going balls out and sharing (lists, not balls!). @Marc Wilson - The Battleplans will be predetermined by myself, but just announced before each round, along with any relevant clarifications.

Hey guys, Another e-mail has gone out to the players tonight. Also - here's the round one draw that was put out on twitter yesterday;

Hey there, Thanks guys, glad you are liking him! He was a lot of fun to paint. I am now really, really, struggling to meet my deadline for this upcoming doubles tournaments. The Arduous Boyz (thanks to @Forestreveries for that one!) are still not complete and I have 10 Brutes plus the updated basing on all other stuff to do. Tournament is 20th of this month. Arghhh!! Cheers Gaz Thanks Les, I had a real vision of what I wanted to do for the stick and it didn't quite come to fruition. I'm happy enough though. I have been researching and planning for the cabbage already. Can't wait to start him. Will definitely have them at FHGT. He has one...a small one, but one none the less! I will be converting my second Warchanter though. Thanks again all x