Rock Lobster

@Malakree I was using the -1 to incoming rend, I didn’t need it though as I never got hit.

Ok, so I got my first game of AOS 2 in with the Ironjawz, list was: Realm = Hyush (which I think is amazing just for Aethrquartz Brooch) Megaboss on Mawkrusha (Mirrored cuirass) Warchanter (boss Stika) Wierdnob (Aetherquartz Brooch) 10 brutes 5 brutes 5 brutes 10 ardboyz (opponent allowed 20 points extra to get these in as my 2nd 3 gore gruntas not painted) 3 gore gruntas ironfist blood toofs cogs I was against sylvaneth Treelord Durthu Drycha 3 units of 3 x kurnoth hunters 2 units of spite revenants 1 unit of dryads The stacking of command abilities and movement buffs was decisive in this, I did the 1 drop and gave first turn to my opponent who blocked off the center with wildwoods around deadly terrain and then move his army into the woods to occupy them thinking he would only be in range of a possible turn 2 charge with durthu being 18" from the closest unit. Of course cogs was cast, and then I successfully destruction moved 2 units of brutes forward followed by rolls of 4 or more on both units of brutes for the ironfist and before the movement phase had even began I had closed that gap to 8", giving me movement to skirt the nasty trees with my 10 brutes, and my 5 brutes simply waded through a forest taking a casualty to slam into a unit of kurnoth hunters. On the flank my gore gruntas tore across the table towards a little unit of spite revenants on an objective. The charge phase was big, 10 brutes into durthu (the picture below is the hole left by durthus demise) - 2 units of 5 brutes into the kurnoth hunters on the right, and surprised my opponent with a big charge from my mawkrusha which sailed over durthus head into drycha. The waagh was most brutal, 3 waaghs done in one turn, 2 of which were 6's giving +5 attacks per weapon to my guys. I even recovered a command point on a 5+ allowing me to finish my turn with another in the bank. With smashing and bashing and the +5 attacks it was a slaughter, durthu, drycha and the kurnoth hunters on the right were slaughtered before striking, and on the left barely in camera shot the gruntas killed the revenants. The sylvaneth responded in their turn by sending 1 units of kurnoth hunters into the warchanter and slaying him, and sending another unit plus the treelord into the 10 brutes, killing 5 of them but the treelord taking 3-4 wounds in the process. In the Ironjawz turn 2 it was mop up. Movement shenanigans put the remaining 5 man brute units into a kurnoth hunter unit and the dryads, the megaboss went into the last kurnoth hunter unit and I left the 5 remaining brutes from the 10 man unit to fight the treelord with some waagh support. Again - 5 additional attacks from Waagh. Used 2 Waaghs and got +2 attacks on a 6 and +1 and recovered another command point I used for a 3rd waagh which gave a +2 attacks. Everything died horribly without striking back. Ironjawz total victory! A lot based on luck for command abilities and movement so not representative. 4 of my 6 command rolls were 6s which is a bit stupid, but even if I had no 6s I think +3 attacks would have done the job. Ironjawz are even more lopsided than they used to be - in your turn they can do an almighty crushing alpha strike that sweeps the table of those in contact, and all your buffs and abilities expire for your opponents turn and they become fragile things that fight like wet noodles, only to explode again in the next Ironjawz turn. I liked the list - the hyush artifacts are really good for us. I dont like the glaring weakness in the army that if the mawkrusha dies the army loses all effectiveness.

The fungoid cave shamans command ability seems really solid for IronJawz seems really solid with the normal move for our destruction roll, such a shame he has to be the general. The idea of character sniping by throwing gordrak forward 24" plus 2D6 for runs, plus a charge if your destruction triggers is really funny - 39" average, 45" if you get the cogs going. That would be a nasty surprise for someone if they left their general on the back of the board improperly screened because they are 'safe'.

Hmm, very wierd that the exhaulted keeper is a bohemoth and hero but not a leader. It sucks since it means you can’t make the exhaulted your general. Good news is if you take them you can still cram 6 non bohemoth characters.

Cogs I think is essential, it can allow the keeper to make turn 1 charges. Another good one for cacophony and to start racking up depravity is the umbral spell portal. I really think only cogs are needed though.

Also lets not forget, if you had 3 of these and they earn 2 depravity points on any enemy and they were killed you can use depravity points for 7 heralds, if they are killed you can summon 5 heralds, and when they are killed you get 3 more heralds, and from them 2 more heralds and then 1. Thats 18 heralds spitting out even if all is going really wrong, thats 1080 points of free stuff from 1,320 points of stuff. That seems amusingly broken. And that is assuming these guys dont go on a killing rampage racking up their own points besides the 2 points I listed above.

The loss of the 3+ save hurts, and the loss of reroll 1s to wound. However on balance I think there are 3 great benefits, 60 points cheaper means another herald and essentially +4 depravity points as well as making it a cheaper caster per spell then the keeper of secrets, the command ability is MUCH MUCH MUCH better, by a lot, by a ton. Think about the faction bonus which allows you to have 3 commanders using command abilities (I am assuming this is changed to 1 command point for all three to activate). You send 3 exhaulted demons into the enemy and double attack with each of them. Thats 22 attacks each - high quality attacks. That'll earn some good depravity points. And of course with the new scroll you can have more than 1, so you can have as many as 3 of these monsters in a 2000 point army. Very cool I think.