Chris Tomlin

July 22, 2016

Yeh we certainly won't be having any of that nonsense

I've decided to hold off on sending out a further e-mail until early next week in case anyone has further queries post GH release.

Please do respond to the initial e-mail with food choices though, only a few of you have done that so far.

Got some great independent prizes coming in for the raffle as well. Plus sorted a couple of other bits - gonna be a really fun event I think.

July 22, 2016

Wassup Warchanters!?

Hope everyone is well...it's finally Friday so you should be, also new TBS episode out this weekend!

Last night, as planned, I got to play my good friend Gary Hennessey and his pure Flesh-eater Courts army. As will now be pretty standard for us, it was a 2,000pt game under the General's Handbook. We played...um...why am I so rubbish with these Battleplan names...Border War? I dunno, something like that.

Basically there are 4 objectives, 1 in each deployment zone and two in the middle of the board. You claim objectives if at the end of any turn you have more models than your opponent within 6", you then "tag" them and can freely move away if you desire. At the end of your turn you score for any objectives you hold. 1VP for the one in your deployment zone, 2VP for either of the middle two and 4VP for the one in the enemy deployment zone. Straight off the bat I thought this seemed pretty cool. I wasn't wrong.

Both our armies were 2k exactly, so no triumphs.

Da Black Sunz - Ironjawz 2,000 points (Destruction Allegiance in game)

Megaboss on Maw-krusha (Artefact: Meteoric Hammerblade)
Megaboss Krunk (Trait: Ravager. Artefact: Battle Brew)
Warchanter
Weirdnob Shaman
Ironfist
10 Brutes (Jagged Hackas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
10 Ardboyz (9 Big Choppas, 1 shield)
3 Gore-gruntas (Choppas)

Game 4 - vs Gary Hennessey - Flesh-eater Courts @The Lost Lighthouse (Gary)

I should preface this report by saying that my record vs Gary in any miniatures wargame is utterly terrible, he is a complete bogey opponent and it's pretty inexplicable (I will flat out not consider him being a better player as the reason!! x). On the flip side, in any card based game we play, I tend to get the upper hand. So I wasn't really all that confident going into the game, I thought I'd just try my best to #cabbagestomp him good n' proper and see how it served me.

His army was (roughly); Crypt Haunter Coutier (General; Von Carstein Ring), Ghoul King, Ghoul King on Zombie Spider Dragon (think this guy had an artefact but I can't remember), 2 Crypt Ghast Courtiers, Varghulf Courtier, 2x 30 Ghouls, 6 Crypt Horrors and 3 Crypt Flayers. He also had some sweet 20 point Battalion that allowed one his units to "reform" (free 6" move, although one model stays still) - pretty good for its points considering it gets you an artefact as well.

I actually have a Flesh-eater Court army myself. I've only played one game with it and I actually found it pretty tough to keep track of and best utilise the plethora of synergies they have. I know Gary has played quite a lot of games (including all the GH battleplans) with them so I was looking forward to seeing the army work properly. At first I was pleased he didn't bring his Ghoul King's pet Mourngul, but on reflection, whilst it is super super strong, I think he would've lost out a lot in the way of synergy, which the list really thrives on.

I'd opted to take the Hammerblade on the Cabbage this time around, the thinking being that if he could get into either of the big Ghoul units he could make a right mess. I'll say upfront, that this didn't come to fruition (vegtablition?). Despite being in a number of positions where it could of had an impact, it was never needed and I did not roll for this. I'm really starting to think that this item is one that looks so good on paper, but perhaps doesn't have quite the desired effect in game. I dunno. If my Brutes hadn't done so well in a round of combat I probably would've used it. Gary had no mortal wound output to speak of, so it's not like I was bemoaning the lack of Talisman. hhhm more testing required.

Anyhow, I beat Gary on deployment thanks to the Ironfist and after surveying the battlefield (I won't discuss what was where, I will add photos of all 4 battles at some point, but in the mean time you can check the media on my Twitter feed for the pics @the_black_sun), opted to allow Gary to take the first turn.

There was a nice big piece of Damned terrain in his deployment zone. After a quick discussion, Gary realised he was able to take the hit and pick up the Damned buff on a unit of Ghouls and the Horrors, before firing up the Courtier ability to regrow any Ghouls (well, the ones who didn't pass their 5+ from the trait - I don't wish to bang on about this, but I probably will. Man it's good!!). Pretty nifty "combo". He put up a couple of spells/buffs etc and moved forward, sitting on the two central objectives. It was at this point I realised he could claim and score both of these in the first turn, putting him 5-0 up. I was kicking myself a bit here as I arguably I should've taken first turn and done the same myself. Still, it wasn't all lost and I knew I'd be able to strike back pretty hard.

In my turn I did indeed strike back. Gary was surprised by my speed and ability to get units in the positions they needed to be. The only downside was the unit of 10 Brutes (buffed up as standard) rolled poorly for the Ironfist and Rampaging destroyers. Still, on my right the Cabbage, 5 Brutes and Megaboss Krunk got into 30 Ghouls (which had Inspiring Presence on them), the 10 Brutes didn't roll far enough to join that fight so instead went for the Crypt Flayers who had jumped into terrain right in the centre of the table. On my left, the Gore-Gruntas and Ardboyz went into the other Ghoul unit (this was the one with the buff from Damned).

As it played out, the Cabbage didn't even get to attack (other than his Destructive Bulk charge attack which killed a good few) as 5 Brutes and Megaboss Krunk absolutely obliterated the entire unit of Ghouls to a man!!! I was using Gary's new Age of SigBrah dice against him to good effect at this point - early doors I thought straight up deleting these was super helpful...Gary disagreed. The Crypt Flayers in cover tanked the Brutes very well, with a great save and that god awful Battle Trait! On my left it faired less well, the Ardboyz and Gruntas did very little, but fortunately didn't suffer too badly in return. I ended up scoring 3 this turn and at this point was considering whether I should've just committed vs one unit of Ghouls initially. However in retrospect, if I had done this, Gary could've pushed the other Ghouls onwards (remember once you've "tagged" the objective you can move away) meaning I would've been fighting him further away from the objective, so I do think it was the right call.

Gary won an incredibly vital T2 priority roll. I think had I got this I could've used my momentum from T1 to really get on the front foot. However, it wasn't to be. Gary had a good Hero Phase, using the Damned buffs again and put up all the spells and abilities he needed (don't ask me to list them, I couldn't keep track of all the bloody rerolls!), along with a sweet conga line on the Crypt Horrors to get them challenging the objective in my deployment zone (I even let him have a couple of takebacks...I wouldn't usually mention it, but I know he'll be reading and we like to give each other s**t haha!! ). The combat phase was horrendous. The Crypt Horrors got into 5 Brutes guarding my objective however didn't really do much. My large Brute unit completely whiffed their attacks (causing me to switch up dice sets and bring out the big guns - TBS pinks! Gamey!! ) and Gary's Ghouls (sounds like a kids book) deleted both the Ardboyz and the Gore-gruntas in a disgusting display of combo reroll goodness. Was horrible!!

At this point, we were basically playing battle for the pass with each of us strongly dominating one end of the board and a big mash up in the centre. The downside for me was that I was behind on VPs.

Over the next couple of turns a combination of s**t dice (I really hate blaming dice, but 5/7 1's on wound rolls for Brutes is s**T!) and 5 ups from that bent Death Battle Trait saw the middle of the table remain clogged up - those Crypt Flayers would not die. In hindsight Gary thinks he should've retreated them, but I'm not sure, they took so much attention. If they weren't there the 10 Brutes could've handily dealt with the Crypt Horrors. The Zombie Spider took a lot more effort to kill than it should've (see above excuses), the Brutes went to town on it, however it did still somehow require Megaboss Krunk to deliver the killing blow (which was nice as it gave him 7 attacks going forward, hitting and wounding on 2's thanks to his can of Crunk Juce!). The Cabbage was able to get into the Haunter Courtier and pounded on him, giving me the objective in Gary's zone, allowing me to really pull it back. Gary did actually forget his Carstein Ring here (only realising in a text convo later last night), which is a bit of a shame as it would've meant he could've teleported upon revival and challenged another objective.

Gary threw his second unit of Ghouls, which by now had lost some buffs, into the centre only to be welcomed by a few remaining Brutes and Megaboss Krunk. Despite Krunk's best efforts to roll 1's, 7 attacks 2/2/-1/2 (then his fist) still really hurt the Ghouls and they were seen off without much trouble. We both agreed in hindsight he should've held these Ghouls back a bit.

The Cabbage then went flying forward, charging a Ghoul King, Varghulf and Ghast Courtier. I had to split my attacks as killing the King and Courtier would've seen me claim the second central objective. Really annoyingly they both survived on one wound. Over a couple of combat phases the Varghulf went mental and pretty much solo'd the Cabbage! At this stage it was starting to look good though, I was winning the war of attrition, calling a Waaaagh in one Hero Phase to really put some hurt on the Horrors and finally finishing off the Flayers. I even had thrown my Weirdnob and Warchanter into the Crypt Horrors to help out - the Shaman actually put in a right shift!

At the end of Gary's 5th turn, the score was 23-22 in my favour and I still had a turn left to play, in which I would've scored a minimum of 6. We called it there. So.....

Result - Major Victory

What a game!! Result aside (although, no denying, it was great to finally get a win over Gary - first in AoS!) this was one of my favourite Warhammer games in ages. Me and Gary always have a great game, full of banter and nonsense, and our armies seemed to prove quite an even match up in this one. The Battleplan is really good and despite my reservations on number of models claiming, it didn't seem an issue at all in this one. The game genuinely could've gone either way and it was great to see the Flesh-eaters being played "properly".

Apologies the report tailed off a bit towards the end, but hopefully you'll get a picture of the battle (I will add some literal pictures eventually!!).

As always, thanks for reading. I'm really enjoying the army and can't wait to play more! Hopefully my next big update will be some painting progress though. Depends how drunk/hungover I am this weekend

Chris

July 22, 2016

36 minutes ago, Ogait-Nas said:

Hi!
We know that 10 ardboyz are 180 points. OK

So, if I want to field 15 ardboyz (there are 15 of them in the new box!), do I have to pay for 20 -that's 360 points- because the minimum I can add is 10 of them, or can I just add 90 points for 5 and pay 270 points to field 15? Of course I know they would have to be a single unit.

Thank you guys!

Yeh @RuneBrush is correct - the General's Handbook even covers this with a small section on "under strength units".

It's a bit annoying they choose to pack/point Ardboyz this way. It's almost as if they acknowledged it by only putting 10 in the Start Collecting box.

July 21, 2016

Morning Weirdnobz!

All being well and good I will be playing my 4th game with the GH battleplans tonight. I hope to be facing off against @The Lost Lighthouse (Gary) and his dirty dirty Flesh-eater Courts.

Should be a good but tough game. I've promised to #cabbagestomp him good and proper though!

Wish me luck and watch this space!!

July 20, 2016

1 hour ago, pforson said:

Hmmm. I was hoping for Gutbusters.

Why do they keep releasing Battletomes for the Armies I like, but always seem to choose the mini-faction from said army that least interests me.

grumble grumble grumble...

Bonesplitterz and Beastclaw Raiders were the two factions within the General's Handbook that featured renamed Warscrolls not currently in print.

Don't fear though, at the rate they are pumping these out you'll have your Gutbusters soon enough I'm sure!!

July 20, 2016

@Nico - Agreed. Be interesting to see how they pan out for sure. Will be a few at Rain of Stars I suspect anyway.

@Dez - Cheers bro!

@Auriel - Thanks for replying. I laughed whilst reading your list, and here's why;

Da Black Sunz - Ironjawz - 1,000 points - Brothers of Sigmar (Doubles)

Megaboss Krunk (Trait: Ravager / Artefact: Battle Brew or Talisman)
Warchanter
Ironfist
10 Brutes (Jagged Hackas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
10 Ardboys (9 Big Choppas, 1 shield)

Which, as you'll know, is 1,000 points dead on! What's even funnier is that in an ideal world I'd probably drop the 5 Brutes for 3 Gore-gruntas, making the list potentially identical to yours!! However as per my pics on the first page, that unit of 5 Brutes with Choppas is actually painted so with a tight deadline looming (20th August) and lots of painting still to do, I simply can't afford to drop them from the list.

I don't think our lists being similar is much of a coincidence though to be honest. The combo of Megaboss, Warchanter, Ironfist and then 4x units of your choosing to fill out 1k is a pretty solid/obvious choice I guess. Adding the Weirdnob leaves you with points you can't do much with (unless you really change the list up). I can't vouch for it being any good mind!

The unit of 10 Brutes is good as it is a lot of wounds and can take the Warchanter buff + immune to Battleshock. This way it'll stick around for a while meaning the Battalion's Big Boss (who should be in this unit) will remain alive longer giving you the Battalion benefit later into the game. Does that make sense?

I suppose a lot will come down to the Battleplans you are going to be playing. If you need more bodies, then more Ardboyz is a good choice. Also, if you haven't purchased any models yet you could buy 2 of the new Start Collecting: Ironjawz boxes, giving you the following list;

Warchanter
Warchanter
Ironfist
10 Ardboyz
10 Ardboyz
3 Gore-gruntas
3 Gore-gruntas

From an independent retailer you could be paying as little as £80 for this solid starter army (940 points). You could also potentially convert one of the Warchanters into a Weirdnob Shaman perhaps if you wanted to keep to a budget. Unfortunately try to make a Megaboss out of him might be a stretch too far!

Anyway, let me know what you decide and how your games go!

Chris

July 19, 2016

1 hour ago, Nico said:

Good report.

I would have thought that the Hunters should be sniping your buffing characters (Warchanter and Shaman) rather than trying to take out a 3+ save monster. Either that or drop a lot of damage on one unit of poor bravery brutes and hope to nail them with Battleshock.

Cheers.

Yeh I agree that going for a soft target that can be deleted would of been a better choice. To be honest with you I couldn't say for certain he did actually target the Cabbage, its just that I don't recall taking any damage from shooting other than a couple of wounds on him, but I guess that could've come from Alarielle's spear.

Over the weekend Aaron played a lot (at least 6 games) with the new Sylvaneth and had mixed results. He hasn't played much AoS at all and I think would say himself his play wasn't perhaps as tight as it could've been throughout (I noticed some odd target selection in another of his games vs Flesh-eaters, though it turned out he did have a plan there). I guess a lot comes with experience of opposing units as well as your own. Even though I've played a lot of AoS, I still find myself making mistakes and learning, both about my units and the plethora of things out there I haven't yet played.

We could definitely see the potential of the Sylvaneth over the weekend, I do think they will be quite the force on the tabletop in the hands of an experienced/good player - It's quite nice in a way that you can't just put them down and auto win though, which I was a little worried Aaron would do!!

July 19, 2016

49 minutes ago, Nico said:

I'm planning to run a largely Forgeworld list. If FW don't release points on or before Saturday, could I please go ahead with SCGT costs x 20. I'll submit the list over the weekend. Any later than that and it's going to be hard to adjust.

Thank you

Yes that should be fine. There was a couple of monsters I would consider modifying -/+ beyond the SCGT x20, but if you just send over your list we'll take it from there. I don't anticipate any issues and please don't worry that you're not going to be able to use your list or anything.

I will be sending another e-mail to entrants tonight as it happens, I have a few questions to answer etc.

July 19, 2016

14 hours ago, Sangfroid said:

Great reports @Chris Tomlin close games and plenty of broken heads sounds a blast, you have fought 2 of the tough counters to ironjawz, mortal wounds spam and high rend multi damage attacks. Looking forward to hearing how the last game went :-)

Cheers mate. Yeh I hadn't really thought about it like that, in that both armies were strong counters. The Bulltribe absolutely destroyed the 5 man units of Brutes and the 10 only stuck around moderately longer due to being immune to Battleshock. Tough for sure. Problem is where the Ironjawz are borderline one dimensional (well, I guess they just are and I probably need to accept that soon!) it's pretty tough to react, even with a sideboard (talking pure Ironjawz).

6 hours ago, Nixon said:

This is a very good read. Thanks for doing it.

And some great looking models as well.

Thanks!

Thanks @Nixon really appreciate that and I'm pleased you're enjoying the thread so far. There should be plenty more pics of models over the coming weeks as I'm trying to get the army done for some upcoming events.

4 hours ago, Paul Buckler said:

One thing is you got tempted into using foot of Gork, rather than a much more castable mystic shield early game. Think thats something you def should try to reign in unless its really needed.

Also you left your war chanter behind and unable to help his mates out mid game, you spotted it the next turn and commented on it.

It was a great game, we always seem to have loads of fun when we play, really close as well, proabably 200 points in it end game, adding up. Best way to start off my first bossfest and set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

@Paul Buckler - Thanks mate, I've trimmed your post down for the quote to highlight some key points. I think I have said myself on this forum (if not, certainly in person) that I 100% have this issue with Foot of Gork. I always know it's not the right choice, pretty much ever, but get over excited by the potential and waste my Weirdnob almost always! haha. Maybe I'll have to strike through the spell in my book or something! As you say, I did make a mistake on the Warchanter (I believe you did offer me a retrospective move once I pointed it out) forgetting to run him up. It's really key and flat out shouldn't be making simple errors like that...I'm gonna put that one down to beer! Totally agreed on the last point, can't begrudge you the win, was a great game.

So onto Game 3 I guess. As the army list is on the first page, I'll post it again here...

Da Black Sunz - Ironjawz 2,000 points (Destruction Allegiance in game)

Megaboss on Maw-krusha (Artefact: Talisman of Preservation)
Megaboss Krunk (Trait: Ravager. Artefact: Battle Brew)
Warchanter
Weirdnob Shaman
Ironfist
10 Brutes (Jagged Hackas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
10 Ardboyz (9 Big Choppas, 1 shield)
3 Gore-gruntas (Choppas)

Game 3 - vs Aaron Bailey - Sylvaneth

This was my first game against the Sylvaneth, therefore my first game against what I guess we'd call a pure faction army in AoS (one with their own traits and artefacts etc). We played the Places of Power Battleplan - basically 3 objectives across the centre of the table that get control by heroes. As Aaron is attending Rain of Stars, which doesn't require Battleline units, we agreed he didn't have to use them (counting it as a practice game I suppose). I think he thought that being allowed not to, combined with heroes scoring, meant he shouldn't take any Battleline units. This, in my opinion, was a mistake. His army was (roughly); Alarielle, Drycha, Shard of Durthu, Treelord Ancient, 6 Kurnoth Hunters with Bows...and I think that might be it?!

One good move he made was to deploy the Kurnoth Hunters in one unit of 6, meaning to beat me on deployment, giving him first turn. Obviously in standard Matched Play this doesn't work as you have a set list, but for Rain of Stars you can sideboard and nothing in your overall army has fixed unit sizes, allowing for greater flexibility. In his first turn he buffed up, pushed Alarielle onto one Place of Power, supported by Durthu. Laid another Wild Wood, shot a couple of wounds off the Cabbage with the Hunters (they rolled very poorly) and just moved Drycha and the Treelord up towards the other two objectives (but not claiming them).

My first turn was awesome. I'd set my army out to maximise coverage of heroes for the objectives and also Rampaging Destroyers (I should've noted in Game 2 that I made some poor moves, meaning in future turns I lost this fantastic Battle Trait - a lesson well learnt). Aaron was visibly surprised by the sheer amount of movement by army had. My plan was to basically shield my characters with a unit or two each (as these can move faster thanks to Ironfist formation aswell as the trait) and push forward. It turned out to be a very good plan (in this instance) and highlighted the frailty of Aaron's army without any troops to assist.

I had considered dropping the Ravager command trait for Nothing Left Standing, to smash up the Wild Woods, but as it panned out the extra movement was really key in this Battleplan. The Weirdnob and Cabbage were both able to grab the other two Places of Power and then in my charge phase I decided to go, well, all in! I braved some charges through Wild Woods and thankfully, fortune favoured the brave in this instance as I lost very little. I had the Gruntas and half of the 10 Brutes (fully buffed) on Durthu, the other half of the big Brute unit, the Megaboss, 5 Brutes and the Cabbage on Alarielle, 5 Brutes on the Treelord and 10 Ardboyz on Drycha!!!

To cut a pretty short story shorter(!), I smashed him. Good and proper. If the first combat phase wasn't brutal enough (helped by Aaron's poor dice rolling when attacking back it has to be said), I also won priority to T2 allowing me to wipe him out. That said, by the end of T1, Alarielle and Durthu were both dead and Megaboss Krunk and taken the 3rd Place of Power after doing the final wound on Alarielle after the Cabbage inflicted 15 wounds on the charge!! Aaron did forget to attempt to transfer these to Durthu to be fair, but this wouldn't have mattered as by the time both Slyvaneth characters went down, I still had 10 Brutes left to fight her (would've potentially been 15 depending on whether the deflected wounds killed Durthu before the first Brute unit struck).

Result - Major Victory

So yeah...that one went pretty well. I think, truth be told. a lot of that came down to Aaron's list. Oddly in a Battleplan where heroes are needed to score, I think having some units to protect and support them are utterly vital. I also think he underestimated (or just didn't realise) the movement potential of my army and the raw power it can have when attacking. I look forward to a rematch with Aaron and I am sure he has the tools to make it much more of a challenge in future.

I think my gameplan worked, and actually, whatever the opposition army, I think I would probably try to play like this when I next play this particular Battleplan.

I guess that's all for now, I'll add anything I've forgotten another time. I also still have a couple of snaps of the games themselves to share.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. I'm pleased to be able to report on at least one victory so far!

Chris

July 19, 2016

10 hours ago, Byro said:

Don't think it was mentioned yet @Chris Tomlin but I'm not sure you can use the artifacts or any of the "Destruction" special rules unless you're running the army as "Destruction". Since you used Ironjawz models as your battleline, that would cut you off from taking the artifacts and such. Not positive if I'm reading the rules correctly though, so feel free to disregard/attack me viciously if I'm mistaken.

Hey,

Yeh you are defo right, it does completely read that way. Us Ironjawz players were a little worried when someone first spotted that last week. Thankfully though, the intent from GW is that you can always revert to the Grand Alliance allegiance benefits and an FAQ will be released with the General's Handbook to confirm this point. You can check out some Twitter convos here...

July 19, 2016

9 hours ago, N_Watson said:

I saw on Twitter that he almost smashed sylvaneth turn one taking 15 out of 16 wounds from alerielle on the charge from his megaboss on mawcrusher.

Spoilers bro!!!

Haha yeh the 3rd report will be up later today. I'll also acknowledge all the other above responses.

July 19, 2016

12 hours ago, Veterannoob said:

gah, Ironjaws! So...much...perils...of...wallet...

I was looking to pick up another box of Ardboyz and 2 Gore-gruntas...so a couple of SC boxes is a must. I'll end up with 5 more Ardboyz (which tbh I can do nothing with, but will have more variance of weapons to pick from) and 2 Warchanters for cheaper!!

July 18, 2016

Game 2 - vs Andy Burton (Chaos - Skaven mixed Clan) @Peabody

List was the same as Game 1, although I swapped the Hammerblade for the Talisman on the Cabbage. Whilst in theory the Hammerblade could prove useful vs the high model count Skaven, the vast threat of mortal wounds had me reaching for the Talisman to try and keep the Cabbage alive a bit longer. Andy's list was (roughly); Grey Seer, Warpseer, Deceiver, Arch Warlock, Stormvermin, 2x Clanrats, Warp Lightning Cannon, Doom Wheel, Hellpit Abomination, Rattling Gun, Warpfire Thrower and 3 Jezzails.

We played the Battleplan that is akin to the SCGT Celestial Compass one (again, can't remember the name - useless!). Essentially we each have an objective in our deployment zone that we must hold with the most models with 6". If you ever hold both objectives you win a Major victory, otherwise it comes down to kill points.

I was actually pretty confident in this one as I knew realistically there was no way he'd be claiming my objective. So I camped the Ardboyz out on mine with the Weirdnob near enough to score +1 from them (plus a further +1 from some Arcane terrain) and chuck spells forward. The rest of the army went forward at speed...well, the big unit of Brutes did, I think I must've rolled a 2 for everything else, which was a bit rubbish!

The unit of 10 Brutes, fully buffed up went into the Clanrats (and the Jezzails) turn 1 with a 10" inch and I was rubbing my hands together thinking I could smash them to bits, hopefully win the double turn (gave first turn to Andy as most his shooting was out of range - the rest did very little in his first turn), take off the Stormvermin who were behind them. I'd then be on his objective and boom - game over bro! Unfortunately this wasn't to be as the Brutes rolled utterly abysmally. Whilst they killed the Jezzails, they killed less than a handful of rats thanks to a lack of rerolls as Megaboss Krunk was not able to keep pace. They were also immune to Battleshock which further embarrassed the Brutes. As it was, there was no double turn anyway. The Deceiver had Skitterleapt in to the Gore-gruntas and was soon backed up by the Abomination. This brutal tag team made short work of the big piggies.

Andy had 2 bits of Mystical terrain in his deployment zone, which could've had a pretty big impact on this game. I gave him the pro tip of rolling for all the units before casting spells (I think a lot people always assume its best to roll for Mystical terrain last thing in the Hero phase, but there are benefits to doing it at other times if you have buffs). As it was he passed for everything, giving lots of rerolls. The Stormvermin went in and made a right mess of the Brutes (thankfully my Brutes were also immune to Battleshock). In the next turn I had moved the Megaboss up which inspired the Brutes to great things, finishing off the Clanrats and hurting the Stormvermin (who were now immune to Battleshock), though of course they killed a couple back.

Meanwhile, the Cabbage was getting repeatedly hit by Howling Warpgale (the Talisman did help out with the 3 Mortal wounds) and did eventually charge the other Clanrats, killing them. The Doomwheel didn't achieve much, but pulled 5 Brutes out of position to see it off with ease. The other 5 Brutes did a similar job on the Abomination, but couldn't deal with the Deceiver.

The main combat in the middle was where the battle hinged. The Stormvermin's ability to retreat and recharge was really solid. Andy did roll a 1 for Mystical terrain on them which would've been game winning for me I suspect. However, it transpired he misunderstood the rule, thinking he would need trail the unit within 3" to keep the buff the turn before. When I explained this wasn't the case (ie, once he rolled 2+ in T2 hero phase he could move away and the reroll wounds would stick until his next hero phase) I allowed him to move them away, denying them rerolls to wound if they rolled 2+, but obvious as he had already rolled a 1 the difference was quite big. Still, I'd rather not win a game on a mistake/misunderstanding like that and it was a friendly/learning game so all good.

This resulted in the Stormvermin (with magical and shooting assistance) killing the remaining Brutes. At this stage in the game this meant there was no way I'd be able to take his objective, so like Game 1, we were now down to kill points. Unfortunately his 4 spell casters proved too much and the mortal wounds chipped away. We added up points killed and worked out the best option for "soft targets" etc in the remaining turns, but it was too far gone for me.

Result - Minor Loss

I do like the Matched Play Battleplans, but I wonder how many times it'll come down to "well we've drawn the objective, let's just kill each other"? Honestly, I've not played enough to have any idea if that'll be a thing, though at this point you can forgive me for thinking it. I'll admit I did feel slightly hard done by this result (Don't get me wrong, the game was still super fun!) as I had played to actually win the objective. My army is just not resilient enough vs the mortal wound spam. A bit of luck here and there and I reckon this could've been an early win for me, but I suppose in retrospect if I didn't smash through right away and get the win, the magic/shooting chipping away at me was always going to ensure that Andy won the war of attrition.

I guess that is my one reservation with the army. Do I just need to smash it forward and try to win early before the opponent has a chance to really fight back? I've kinda argued against that a bit in the "competitive Ironjawz" thread, so we'll have to see I guess. Also, remember what I've just said for when I get onto the 3rd battle report!

Again, Andy is on the forum so hopefully he'll chime in with his thoughts.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

July 18, 2016

Hey there Ardboyz,

So this past weekend was Bossfest, you can check out Twitter for some photos of the social side of the event. Suffice to say it was suitably messy and I barely feel alive today. Definitely phasing in and out of reality like a denizen of the Realm of Shadows today!

I managed to get 3 games of Warhammer in over weekend (as well as some Infinity, Open Combat, party games and RPGing). All 2,000 points using the General's Handbook, which I was lucky enough to get a copy of (not from GW mind!!) meaning we could fully utilise everything, as whilst all the points seem freely available I hadn't had PDF/photos of the battleplans etc beforehand.

I did take some photos of the games, when my phone battery wasn't dead, so I will add those later. My list was as discussed above, but for the sake of completeness;

Da Black Sunz - Ironjawz 2,000 points (Destruction Allegiance in game)

Megaboss on Maw-krusha (Artefact: Hammerblade in game 1, Talisman of Preservation in games 2 and 3)
Megaboss Krunk (Trait: Ravager. Artefact: Battle Brew)
Warchanter
Weirdnob Shaman
Ironfist
10 Brutes (Jagged Hackas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
10 Ardboyz (9 Big Choppas, 1 shield)
3 Gore-gruntas (Choppas)

It's 2,000 on the nose, which usually means my opponent will be getting a roll on the Triumph table. Situationally this is pretty big.

First thing I would say off the bat is that without the Destruction allegiance benefits, I think this army would be pretty useless. After using it, Rampaging Destroyers is so strong and a really necessity for the army. Combined with the Ironfist, it does give our move 4 units some real threat range.

Still, it's funny to see how it makes my army useable, but then applied to other armies (Like @ChippyRick's Beastclaw Avalanche), its flat out bent!! Overall, I think Destruction have done well out of the General's Handbook on a Trait/Artefact front. I still think Battleline is going to pose a bit of a problem for some lists. Not a fan.

Here's a rundown of my games (please note, details may be vague/incorrect due to alcohol consumption);

Game 1 - vs @Paul Buckler (Chaos - Bloodscorched Bulltribe)

I had allowed Paul to use this awesome Battalion, we simply multiplied the SCGT cost x20, in the hope that he'll bring it to my event in a few weeks time (I really like it). Basically he has a Doombull, 3 units of Bullgors, 3 Ghorgons (all marked Khorne with extra wounds), a Bloodstoker, a Shaman and a Gargant. Looks awesome on the table. This Battleplan had 4 objectives in a square across the board (think this was Blood and Glory). It was an odd sort of game as we both had pure combat armies. I was very keen to try not to pile all my units in vs him in one go as fighting multiple combats would result in a lot of pain for me. I took the Hammerblade on the Cabbage, though almost instantly regretted my decision due to the number of models on both sides. I do think this is a great option for the Cabbage, but it's not by any means an auto include. The combats seemed very swingy, with a Ghorgon and 3 Bullgor deleting 5 Brutes and the Cabbage on one side shocking me! The Gore-Gruntas did ok by taking down the Gargant and more importantly in the middle of the board my unit of 10 Brutes (with immune to battleshock, mystic shield and Warchanter buff) doing an absolute number on a pair of Ghorgons. Unfortunately the other Bullgors had a mental round of combat and saw off a large number of the Brutes in return - highlighting my earlier concerns of engaging multiple units. Basically it became pretty clear that we would both control two objectives (despite it being on number of models - neither of us had many!) which would put the result of the game down to kill points. Whilst I had taken down all 4 Behemoths by this point (Brutes tend to do this pretty handily tbh, thanks to their Duff up da big 'uns special rule allowing them to reroll hits), I was unable to finish off any of the Bullgor units and unfortunately Paul just scraped the win.

Result - Minor Loss

This was a really good game and straight away had me liking the Ironjawz under GH thanks to all the extra movement. Paul is one of my favourite AoS opponents as he always brings something interesting and is a great guy at the table. It was somewhat odd in that we both had such hitty armies. Paul probably played it quite a lot better tbh as he packed all his units so tightly in one line and moved them forward as a solid block, that way it made it really hard for me to engage his units on a one-on-one basis and as he said himself, he didn't care who's turn we fought in. I'll admit I did feel up early doors, even with the Cabbage going down so quick (he did actually kill the 3rd Ghorgon - though 11 of those wounds were caused by the shooting attack over 2 rounds!!!) as I went through the Behemoths quickly. But the Bullgors won out over the Brutes in the war of attrition.

Paul is on this forum, so he may be able to weigh in with some further comments.

I'll post up Games 2 and 3 over this afternoon/tomorrow. I will also be doing my run down of the Artefacts this week as well, plus some chat around 1,000 point Ironjawz (for an upcoming doubles event). Essentially, spoiler, I'm really hyped for the army at the moment!!

July 18, 2016

On ‎16‎/‎07‎/‎2016 at 11:43 AM, TDK said:

Chris, quick question regarding the £10+ raffle - are you restricting it to just warhammer related items, or are other products allowed? (Got some BNIB X-Wing stuff for example)

Cheers

Sam

That'd be fine mate.

July 14, 2016

13 hours ago, Terry Pike said:

This is allowed and is happening!

Great call! Nice one

Hear that @Pano - IT'S ON!!

July 13, 2016

@Dez & @Nico - Great shout on smashing up the Sylvaneth woods! I'll admit that I hadn't considered that. I'm still not sure it makes it better than the "good" picks, but certainly gives it a purpose. As one I wanted to try at some point for fun anyway, I think I will ensure its vs Sylvaneth!

Just not convinced being mildly annoying to your opponents plan is better than actively improving your own stuff?

12 minutes ago, Nico said:

Wild Fury is poor compared to Bellowing Tyrant as you could always pick the general himself as the target of bellowing target as he is within D6 inches of himself.

Yes indeed. Also in this instance it would also work on a Maw-krusha. However I maintain that Bellowing Tyrant is better on a regular Megaboss. Well, not better...but you're less inclined to position poorly for the sakes of the buff. If that makes sense?!

July 13, 2016

Afternoon Ardboyz (and Gurlz?),

I thought I'd just quickly go over the Destruction Traits, posting some brief thoughts on each. Obviously over time these opinions may change as I use them in game etc.

I'm not going to post screenshots of the pages, detail full rules or anything. It's all available out there if you know where to look or ask the right people.

Battle Trait

Rampaging Destroyers - Clearly this ability is super super strong and really helps the army out. If they do later bring out some Ironjawz specific stuff, it'll have to be pretty good to be picked over this. Obviously it does require a little thought in deployment and indeed movement in subsequent turns.

Command Traits

Nothing Left Standing - 100% this is my favourite Trait fluffwise and thematically. It's so cool and I quite fancy giving it a go for the lolz at some point. In general though, it's not that great.

Might is Right - Pretty solid. You'd want to put this on a Maw-krusha Megaboss if you do take it to maximise its effectiveness I would think. Worth a look.

Wild Fury - This one doesn't specify it works on the mount as well, so is maybe less good. Can't see myself picking it really.

Bellowing Tyrant - Potentially very nice if you are running a large block of Brutes or Ardboyz and stacks with other things. Definitely not one to overlook. Note it is only D6" and not a fixed range so you do have to be a bit clever.

Big and Brutish - It's fine, but there are better options available.

Ravager - This, for my money, is definitely the pick of the bunch. Guaranteeing at least 3" extra movement for potentially all your units is massive.

In my mind I think I would always be taking Ravager if I'm honest. Seems super solid. That said, I think Bellowing Tyrant is my second favourite and I quite like that on a foot Megaboss who's keeping speed with 10 Brutes armed with Jagged Hackas. I will certainly be trying that one out as well.

I wonder how my opinions will change after some games? What do you guys think?

I'll come back to discuss the Artefacts tomorrow/later this afternoon.

Cheers for reading,

Chris

July 13, 2016

Wow...thanks for all the replies. Glad overall people seem to be liking them. I should get some time into the Ardboyz next week and once they are done I'll take some better photos of the lot. Obviously we'll have some gaming/theory updates before then. Hoping I can use all the comments and conversation here as real motivation to power through the army, like a true Greenskin, feeding off the Waaaagh energy!

18 hours ago, Dez said:

I like your basing. I'm going to go Agrellan myself, but with lots of little bits of interest in the basing. I want to make my basing like Fist of Gork, so a dried up desert with lots of bones and stuff. I'd experimented with different effects, but Agrellan Earth just does it so well!

Cheers, my only worry with Agrellan Earth is whether it flakes off or anything over time. Having not used it before I'm not really sure on the application. I've seen a few people have regular sand basing like mine with patches of the cracked earth and do kinda like that. Hhhm - I wonder if @Stevewren has any words of wisdom as I know he's used it (+ Martian Ironearth) a far bit.

14 hours ago, Malakithe said:

That's damn near my 2k list too. 2k exactly. It's great that all the units are 180 to swap things around.

To be honest, it's going to take something a bit off the wall to be considered innovative with an Ironjawz list I think. We are reasonably limited on options so I do think a lot of builds will look similar. As you say having the 3 Battleline units at 180 is really nice, allows people to take a core force and tailor it to suit their preferences - be it gaming and/or aesthetics. I guess adding additional Battalions (ie a Gorefist, which I would like to try myself) mixes things up a bit. I think the weakest point in my army probably is the Megaboss on foot, but he's such a cool model and I really like mine...so I'm going to struggle to drop him haha!

14 hours ago, Malakithe said:

What kit is that main weapon from?

On the Megaboss? It's a bit obscure, its from the Forgeworld 40K Ork Kommando upgrade kit. I used all the sweet gas mask heads on my Tankbustas. Works quite nicely here, although theres a connecting piece on the head that doesn't really line up. Its cool though.

12 hours ago, Soulsmith said:

Loving it! Your varied bitz box is really paying off I'd say. Glad to see some of your work, and definitely know who to turn to for list advice!

Cheers bro! Yeh it was nice to fish through the 40K bitz, I did have to dial it back a bit at points as it was going a bit OTT. But just the odd head swap etc adds a bit of character. I also like my conversion of the Gore Choppa in a one handed pose.

Regarding lists, I wouldn't say I've done anything out of the box as per the above. I do hope to be able to play a lot of games and impart my findings though, so if that's of use to anyone, all the better

6 hours ago, cb_rex said:

Nice work, the pink isn't quite doing it for me though, its a bit too baby pink, I think a darker acidic Warlock Purple type pink would have worked better, maybe lined with white to really contrast against the black.

Some great conversions in there, keep up the good work!

Hey there, thanks for the feedback. To be honest, my usual method of pink historically has been to build from Warlock Purple as this fits in with my club colours of a more "Hot" than "Baby" pink. This new method came about from a GorkaMorka mob I painted last year (Also called Da Black Sunz) and I kinda just stuck with it, but definitely do see your point. Oddly I hadn't actually given it much thought as I just copied that GM paint scheme straight across.

Giving it some consideration now, I do think that what you have suggested would look good if I was say painting panels of the armour in the pink. But as "warpaint" daubed over the top of armour and skin alike, I think perhaps this softer, less stark, tone may be more appropriate. I dunno. Interesting and you've got me thinking so thanks for the comments!

4 hours ago, Dez said:

You know I keep coming back to look and I keep seeing more stuff that I didn't pick up before, these Ironjawz are great!

Cheers Dez! Very kind. Glad you like them. Once I have more Brutes done, you will see that no two are the same

Thanks again for all the comments

July 13, 2016

12 hours ago, Binx said:

After weighing up hotel vs getting up at 5am Saturday morning, hotel wins. Turns out there's a bowling alley round the corner too ?

Just got to wait for the Bonespltterz book to finalise my list and find something for the auction.

I might be up for a bit of bowling on the Friday! We'll see how prepared/organised I am

I'll post all the Tournament details that have been e-mailed out into this thread for completeness sake at some point. Important thing is that the info is with the entrants.

I do also have some questions/queries to answer via e-mail and that will go out to the group as a whole.

Chris

July 12, 2016

22 minutes ago, Dez said:

Anyone else notice the quick reference cards there? I hope they start releasing these...

I just tear the pages out of the assembly instructions you get in each box. These do the trick nicely. Some of the bigger models (Maw-krusha, Stardrake etc) even have a nice glossy full colour print. People often ask where I get them from haha!

July 12, 2016

The General's Handbook doesn't seem like it deals with Allegiances in the way they were intended as per this...

...so it looks like we will be getting an FAQ upon release to cover this and presumably some other items. Really hope they backdate the traits and artefacts for "old" battletomes. It's somewhat clumsy that the format has shifted so drastically already. Makes it seem more reactionary than planned if you get me.

July 12, 2016

2 hours ago, AdHocGames said:

I'm trying not to. I already have a Flesh Eater court and Brayherd on the go, i don't need another army!

But the artwork makes them so tempting...

Well that's just Chaos and Death bro...sounds like you could do with adding some sweet Destruction to the mix!

July 12, 2016

8 minutes ago, Dez said:

They look really nice to me! There's the weathered armor, weapon hafts and the skin is really nice.

There is a nice benefit to taking the baby cabbage: Meteoric Hammerblade. Because the Mawkrusha is based on a small record, you can pretty much whallop a lot of models with mortal wounds.

Cheers man. Certainly all the wood and skin look much better in real life. The skin especially.

Yeah agree totally on that one. As soon as I read that artefact I thought of the Cabbage. As mentioned in my previous post I will discuss them alongside traits at a later time. Will post thoughts on them all relevant to my army.

@Stevewren - Thanks Steve, means a lot from you. Its weird, I quite like the basing, but I flat out knew it'd be the first thing people pick up on. I think I may try scraping off some areas of sand and add Agrellan Earth, then perhaps some tufts too. I just don't know. As I say, theres something about the simplicity of it I like.

July 12, 2016

1 hour ago, Bowlzee said:

With GHB stating you must have 5 models to claim objectives, are you not tempted to get more Ardboyz in to the list?

Yes and no.

Yes - I agree more models on the table is important and these are a good choice. Though I believe its just models, not 5 in one unit or anything.

No - Aesthetically they are no where near as nice as the other choices available and I am really struggling to paint the 10 that are on my desk at present!

In other news I forgot to have a proper look over the traits and artefacts on my lunch, so we'll revisit that a bit later.

Sign In

Profiles

Forums

Gallery

Store

Downloads

Blogs

Events

Posts posted by Chris Tomlin