5 Tournament games at Ascott Race Cource – Warfare 2021

Last weekend I was happy to be able to revisit an old event, that I have been attending for many years – Warfare. But this time there was a change of venue as the old sports hall in Reading was being redeveloped and the show had outgrown the venue anyway. (For those who may not know, Warfare is a trade show with some tournaments along the side)

I would be bringing my Orruk Warclan – Ironjawz – after my success at Carnage and War in the Heartlands with them. But this time I wanted something that was quicker to play than my normal armies – because I wanted to see the trade show!

The thoughts behind my list can be seen in my Ironjawz One Drop Article, and is repeated below:

Allegiance: Ironjawz
– Warclan: Ironsunz
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Hulking Brute
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat

Battleline
10 x Orruk Brutes (320)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– 2x Gore Choppas
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Orruk Brutes (320)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– 2x Gore Choppas
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Orruk Brutes (160)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– 1x Gore Choppas
10 x Orruk Ardboys (170)*
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
– Reinforced x 1

Units
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (300)*
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– Reinforced x 1

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 4 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 155
Drops: 1

I’ve never really tried a 1 drop army before, but I knew that this would definitely have quick games… allowing more time for shopping!

Although the Gore-Gruntas are a more popular choice I had two things which limited what I would take. Firstly I didn’t have any painted, and only had 6 available so I didn’t want to give myself too much painting to do… secondly I like to sit and counter punch so the idea was that the Maw Krusha & Gore Gruntas would charge first, and the Brutes would follow up… but no plan survives contact with the enemy!

Game 1 Savage Gains v Kharadron Overlords

I was drawn against club mate – Ben – in this clash which was great as we’ve not had an opportunity to play recently because of COVID. Also he was using his great undead KO army. It’s lovely!

Survival of the Fittest doesn’t use the ‘normal’ scoring for AOS3, and instead has 1 point for a home objective, 2 for each of the middle ones, and 4 for the opponent’s. I was also lucky enough to have recently played against KO – albeit with my Gitz.

I started with Agressive Expansion, and grabbed the two neutral objectives, putting a toe on the one on the left (picture above), and moving some Brutes onto the one on the right. The MawKrusha (MK) meanwhile used Mighty Destroyers, and charged off to kill a unit of Duardin – I wanted to reduce the size of Ben’s army and was reasonably confident the MK could survive a round of shooting.

In Ben’s turn he picked up his boats and put them all over on my right away from the Maw Krusha, getting the objective (Agressive Expansion) and killing a few models with shooting. The Gunhauler charged 10 Brutes… it’s torpedo missed and it was killed.

I won priority turn 2, triggered Monstrous Takeover and charged the frigate off the objective, whilst getting near the Ironclad – I didn’t want to have unleash hell without the MK & GG getting in, but I failed the MK charge… however I had also made a mistake and the MK was a little too near Gotrek! I redeployed 3 away, forcing an 8″ charge but he succeeded with his reroll and charged… MK died! I’ve only played Gotrek with Gitz before and watching him wipe out an MK (albeit only just) was a shock! Ah well live and learn – I was still ahead 16-11 though because the MK had grabbed 4 points for Ben’s objective.

Winning Priority again, I chose Slay the Warlord… but failed to get through his armour and he lived – I always seem to do this instead of just attacking the boats — must remember next time! Ben did Broken Ranks and the difference was still 5 points in my favour.

Turn 4, and Ben won his first priority completed his Savage Spearhead and picked up 3 points; however I was struggling to get objectives and running out of Brutes – I did grab three objectives though to lead 26-19.

Turn 5, and I won priority again – unfortuantely with units in combat I couldn’t do any Battle Tactics (my third failure in the game!) and picked up 5 points… Ben then taught me the garrison rules – his general deployed out of the Ironclad onto my home objective and shot off the last of the Brutes getting the full 9! … This gave him 12 points at the last… bringing us to 31-31 DRAW!

It was a great game, and really happy it ended in a draw for both of us – must remember to avoid Gotrek with the MK, and attack the Ironclad and not the people inside it next time.

Game 2 Survival of the Fittest – vs Sylvaneth

This was bloody and very, very short. I took the first turn, charged the Kurnoth with the Gruntas – killing them, charged the Revenants with the MK – killing them with the impact hits & Stomp – charged again into the other Kurnoths – killing them! The Ardboyz & 5 Brutes took the outside objectives.

In his turn 1, he charged the MK with everything, but this allowed my Gore Gruntas and Ardboyz to counter charge with the Ironsunz ability – Drycha did some damage, but the Gore Gruntas killed the Warsong Revenants. The Treelord & Stormcast chap couldn’t finish off the MK who then killed the Stormcast and hurt the Treelord.

I won priority for Turn 2, and my opponent conceeded… I was a huge rock to his surgical scissors – 20-0 WIN

Game 3 Power Struggle – Bonesplitterz

This was a classic army with 4 Wurrgog Prophets:

This is a superb characterful ability and I was worried about the potential damage – especially as the Prophets have 6+ ward, and general has a 4+ ward, to reduce the damage they take! These things can (and in the tournament did) take down a Gargant so my MK was at risk… given that I needed to try to get his units away from the Prophets and let the Bonesplitterz go first.

Turn 1, he took Monstrous Takeover and moved his units forward whilst ensuring the Prophets could cover some of the units if I charged them. I took the bait, charged into the Rogue Idol with the MK, and engaged 2 of the Boar Boyz. Killing the Idol, 5 Boars and 3 Boars I was ready for the punch back… but if I could win priority it would all be over.

But it was not to be, and the Bonesplitterz won the priority and took the run selecting Bring it Down on the MK. The first Prophet started the attack doing only 5 damage before dying, but the general was still available – he went all out and rolled until his head exploded… but the MK had only 3 wounds left. Meanwhile one prophet was in range of the GoreGruntas and killed three of them, but died leaving just 1 Prophet left. He charged the MK with some boarboyz, and I counter charged with 5 Brutes and the remaining GG. The boars killed the MK, but the Brutes & GG took down the Boarboyz. Whilst I had lost the big guy I’d done a lot of damage, and was able to grab Broken Ranks in my turn. Meanwhile one of my units of 10 Brutes was walking towards the objective on his side of the board. It was 9-9 but the Bonesplitterz had lost most of their damage dealers.

Turn 3, and Bonesplitterz went first again, the remaining Prophet killing 9 Ardboyz and surviving… wow! gaining Broken Ranks, but this was the high point and I took Agressive Expansion, killed the 10 Orruk Bonesplitters and moving 12″ away from the remaining Prophet. I finished off with Furious Advance and then Savage Spearhead giving me the win. WIN 17-3

Game 4 Veins of Ghur vs Blades of Khorne

Bright and early on the Sunday and I was playing Blades of Khorne and Myles, who I had played before recently. I knew this would be fun, although with Veins of Ghur having the random drop locations I didn’t know if Skarbrand and his mates were coming straight for me.

I set-up defensively, gave Khorne the first turn and we both just shuffled a bit, gained Furious Advance and waited for turn 2.

Khorne won priority turn 2 and gave it to me after the middle objective fell on the side of my MK… this was also the side of his Bloodthirster and Skarbrand, so we knew where the fighting would be. I decided to ignore Battle Tactics for this turn and just moved the Ardboyz onto the objective whilst my 5 Brutes and 10 Brutes advances on my left in case an objective landed over there. Myles predictably took back the objective with Conquer and he led 6-4. A very small lead in Veins.

I won priority turn 3, but the objectives fell reasonably for us both (his on my left guarded by Fleshounds so I couldn’t reach it, mine in the middle) so I gave the turn away. Khorne again played carefully and took Agressive Expansion for the two objectives he already held. I took the same, took back the one in the centre on my right with my Ardboyz and charged into the Fleshounds on the left. I had to keep out of 18″ from the Daemon Prince of Khorne to ensure my charge was successful. The unit of 5 did some damage to the Fleshounds.

I won the key turn 4, declared Monstrous Takeover with the MK who toe poked the objective, whilst on the left the 10 Brutes joined the 5 Brutes and started to threaten the objective. In Myles’ turn they took over the objective and so Myles went on the attack… but Skarbrand failed an 8″ with re-roll and so the Bloodthirster and Juggernaughts went into my force on their own. They failed to kill the 10 Ardboyz, failing their Battle Tactic… but worse – failing to capture the objective. 0 points gained in turn 4 and I was ahead 22-14.

However, the game still had something to give – and by this time we had quite an audience – and turn 5 priority went to Khorne – he selected Slay the Warlord and Skarbrand went for the kill – he wiped out the GG who were guarding the MK and did 16 wounds to the MK. The MK swung back and killed Skarbrand, but the Bloodthirster swung around and killed the MK. The Deamon Prince stood on my objective which I thought was safe as I had a garison near it… only to be told it only counted as 1… ooops! It was 28-22 going into my turn 5.

I selected conquer, set-up outside my garrison and charged the Brutes and one Warchanter into the Bloodthirster (who had used Bloodtithe to get onto my objective). The Daemon Prince’s Blood Soaked Ground made the charge a little more difficult but I was succesful and the Daemon Prince fought twice… killing 3 Brutes – but it wasn’t enough and the Brutes killed the Bloodthirster! I had won 38-31. WIN 14-6. Because of his previous games though Myles was still ahead of me in the tournament.

Game 5 Feral Foray vs Daughters of Khaine

I had not played Morathi yet (suprising with all the games in AOS3 I’ve played) and so this would be useful. My opponent had already beaten an Ironjawz list to get to this point in game 5 and so this might be difficult!

I went first, moved the GG up to grab an objective and got the 5 points… and then found out what Morathi does! She shot, charged the GG and killed 5 of them. The remaining one managed to do the 3 wounds needed (because little Morathi had miscast), but this was a bad start! On my right the Bow Snakes and Shadowstalkers were advancing and killing anything I put within 32″ of them – I did know enough to be outside 24″. First up was the Ardboyz.

With no throw away units or ranged damage to hurt Morathi I was struggling to see a way out, so I took Monstrous Takeover turn 2, and 3 objectives (2 points) putting me on 9. The DoK took the objective on my right, which I had retreated my Brutes from to stop them dying in the hero phase, and we were 9-9… and then it went wrong as I lost the third turn priority. I burnt my middle objective to make the DoK concentrate on an area I wasn’t in, whilst Morathi killed 10 Brutes and put loads of wounds on the MK. I did do three more wounds, but this was too little too late and the teleporting troops meant I couldn’t escape them.

I lost priority turn 4, and hence the MK. The last 3 Brutes charged Morathi and did the remaining 3 wounds gaining some valuable points but I was then wiped out finishing 32-14 for LOST 1-19

This army really struggles in this match-up especially as I don’t have any throw away units, and he was screening well. I think next time I’ll try to get the Warchanters into Morathi as they can be reasonably confident of doing the 3 damage required, but with my other Ironjawz army (lots of drops and Rippas!) I fancy my changes more.

Summary

I finished with 3-1-1 and 62 points having only lost to Morathi. It was a great tournament and I finished 10th out of 38, so very happy with the result. Also managed to chat with a lot of the other gamers there and catch up with friends on the 40k tables!

This was a great army which definitely achieved the target of being quick to play, but still having a chance. The last game draw was critical though and the game against KO was perhaps a little short of what I should have got… but that would have got my playing against some of the Team England chaps who had turned up due to a cancelled event at Warhammer World, so I definitely can’t grumble

I’m not sure it’s a play style I like (a little too reckless for me) but I can definitely see how this can regularly get very high scores in a 20-0 tournament and I may bring it back to the next one of those.