Tom won the event with five wins from five and 94 tournament points.
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Subfaction: Celestial Warbringers – Army Type: Stormkeep – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired – Unique Enhancement: Call for Aid
Leaders ———- Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (General) (205 pts)+ – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (205 pts)+ Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (205 pts)+ Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (205 pts)+ Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (205 pts)++ – Artefact: Luckstone Celestant-Prime (325 pts)++
Ritchie managed four wins from five, losing in the first round to Matt Roberts and his Lumineth Realm Lords. Richie managed to claim 82 tournament points.
Allegiance: Orruk Warclans – Subfaction: Ironsunz – Army Type: Ironjawz – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders ———- Megaboss on Maw-krusha (General) (480 pts)++ – Command Trait: Heroic Stature – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny – Mount Trait: Fast ’Un Orruk Warchanter (115 pts)++ Orruk Warchanter (115 pts)++ Orruk Megaboss (140 pts)+++ – Artefact: Destroyer Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90 pts) – Spell: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
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A few weekends ago I went to Carnage at Element Games run by the superb Alex Jones. He has run some superb post-COVID events in the UK the first of which I took Sons of Behemat to. However for this one I was able to unpack an existing army with a new book… and that meant Orruk Warclans!
The book in all it’s Glory. Available from Games Workshop, online stockists or your favourite & friendly local gaming store
The thoughts behind my list can be seen in my Carnage Prep 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: Mega Bossy – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Smelly ‘Un Orruk Megaboss (140)*** – Artefact: Destroyer Orruk Megaboss (140)*** – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Weird: Bash ‘Em Ladz Orruk Warchanter (115)**** – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (115)**** – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)**** – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Battleline 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)** – 2x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearers – Reinforced x 1 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)** – 1x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearers 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*** – 1x Gorkamorka Glyph Bearers
Units 3 x Rippa’s Snarlfangs (70) ****
Core Battalions *Hunters of the Heartlands **Ironjawz Fist ***Warlord ****Warlord
I went 12 drop, because I don’t often mind whether I have the choice, and I like to have lots of units to play with and get in the way. I also chose to avoid the double Maw-Krusha list because I like the new Brutes and wanted to play with them to see if the theory for them worked on the table.
Game 1 The Vice v Ironjawz
An Ironjawz army with double MawKrusha (MK) but the Vice meant that neither of us wanted to advance at the speed we might normally use. My opponent went first and selected Broken Ranks on a unit of Ardboyz, and advanced on them with an MK, and managed to get within 6″. A sneaky redeploy meant he failed the charge after I rolled well which gave me an early lead.
My turn was very cagey, with my Hand of Gork being successful and putting a unit of 10 Ardboyz behind the lines and capturing one of the objectives getting me a point for holding more.
The second turn saw us looking at each other whilst my opponent advanced his MK a little further and killed 5 Ardboyz, whilst I played conquer to get an objective back by numbers – leaving the MK uninjured. My MK was safely hidden behind my Brutes now, but with the Ironjawz counter charge ability my opponent didn’t want to charge. Equally nor did I!
Turn three the ‘Fast Un’ MK charged my cage and killed some Ardboyz, but my MK countercharged, and killed the MK on my third turn, getting a ton of extra points (+1 for monster slain, +2 for Bring it Down, +1 for doing it with a monster). This put me at 15-12 up.
Turn 4 we again watched each other with my opponent getting Savage Spearhead, and me picking up the easy Monstrous takeover. In Turn 5 I eventually won a priority, barrelled into the centre and killed the second MK with my Brutes… game over! Win for me 27-16
Game 2Feral Foray v Slaves to Darkness – Host of Everchosen
This was an Archaon build with the ability to roll for priority in his turn. He gave me first turn, but had left only on Varanguard on one of his home objectives, so Rippa’s Snarlfangs sped forward, using command point for 6 to run, and placed 3 paws on the objective, staying outside of 9″. A cheeky point gained (for more) and conquer finished early. His first turn was conservative, so I guessed that I was going first in turn 2… and indeed I did.
I ran in a circle with my troops and left a gap in front of my Maw Krusha to tempt Archaon to charge if he got the first turn. One of my foot Megabosses had also charged into the middle to slow down the big fella turn 2. The Megaboss promptly died, but killed some Varanguard in revenge and Archaon came forward… seemed like I was going second!
Turn 3 and Archaon advanced on the exposed Maw Krusha… so I called Redeploy and closed the gap, ensuring Archaon would be within 3″ of the MK if he charged. And charge he did, his first attack killing the Ardboyz, and his second getting to the Maw Krusha… a slight moment of concern but with the -1 to hit his Slayer of Kings failed and the MK fought back with some Brute assistance doing 12 wounds. He also made a mistake on my right by not killing a single Ardboy which was his battle tactic (they were fighting Brutes as well).
Turn 4 and the MK failed to kill Archaon meaning another nervous moment… and into the sword I went! Fortunately the Brutes piled in and finished him off – phew! and that was pretty much it. He gained a cheeky Monstrous Takeover with the Sphinx in his turn 4, but I killed it turn 5 for a bonus point and I came away with a 26-21 win
Game 3 Apex Predators – Helon LRL
I was on table 4 at this stage and played Helon LRL with 2 wind spirits, Severith and their friends… ouch! I deployed on the line in the hope he wouldn’t kill enough and he failed to kill the MK but I couldn’t charge the foxes as they could outdistance me and I had insufficient wounds left to survive unleash hell. Unfortunately I failed my Mighty Destroyers charges into the Sentinels and then the Brutes failed by one wound to kill the fox they were fighting, (it saved 8 of 9 5+ ward saves!) which meant no Smashing and Bashing and the other fox and Wind Chargers ran away!
Unfortunately that was the game with a huge loss, but I did stop my opponent getting his secondary by charging in my Warchanter and dying. Lost 3-25!! (Ouch; again!)
Game 4 Savage Gains (I think!) vs Stormcast
I was meant to play Fyreslayers but some drop-outs meant a redraw and I played the new Stormcast. It was a great fun game, but his two Ballistas failed to kill (or indeed hit) and MK over the first two turns.
He sacrificed a unit of Liberators to slow down the Maw Krusha (putting them within 12″ to stop the Mighty Destroyers and picked up Ferocious Advance, and I responded with a Conquer and killing the Liberators. They came back though, so after turn 1 neither of us had done much and it was 7-7!
He won the second turn, chose Aggressive Expansion, but failed to knock my Ardboyz and some Brutes off a central objective despite charging. In this turn he also moved the returned Liberators to slow me down again, but losing the two points and failing to get either of the central objectives hurt the point collection – only 1 point gained! In response I chucked the army into combat, and started killing Stormcast. Picking up the full 7 points.
My opponent won the priority turn 3 but gave it to me as I was trapped in combat and he wanted to remove an objective… unfortunately my combat power was too much with the Ballistas being rubbish and I took the game. Win 41 -8
Game 5 vs Seraphon
Back on table 4 as a reasonable scoring 3-1 army I was playing against a Kroak Seraphon army. I was given the first turn, used Mighty Destroyers to get the Brutes and 10x Ardboyz forward and flew the MK into the centre as I got Mystic Shield off. Now I needed to survive!
His turn 1 was shooting with a world of Salamanders (2×2 in his starting list, and 1 summoned) and killed half the Brutes and put significant damage on the MK… but I had survived. Now if I could get the priority I could charge and be in them!
Unfortunately he won priority, took the priority and took off the remaining Brutes… he made a mistake by doing magic mortal wounds whilst I had Amulet of Destiny until Kroak remembered he could destroy it… spell was cast… dice was rolled… Amulet of Destiny was gone… oh dear! The Salamanders continued to do amazing damage and charged the MK to finish him off. Fortunately for me he rolled no 6s and I made my saves and killed a unit of 2.
Having survived I had a chance, so one of my Footbosses charged another unit of 2 Sallys in order to stop Unleash Hell on the MK. The MK charged a small unit of 1 Sally and the Troglodon… who was also pinned by the unit of Ardboyz. The Sallys killed the Megaboss, who (with destroyer) swung back and killed them all, but the MK failed to kill either the Salamander in front of him or the Troglodon (which came back on a 4+!). I was ahead though and once again priority would be key.
And I lost it again, but my opponent decided now was the time to go after the support characters and they all died leaving the MK alive but alone. A unit of Skinks teleported behind the MK to capture the central objective gaining Conquer. In response the MK finally killed the Troglodon and picked up a 7 point turn. I was ahead on point (15-9) but had little left. I needed the MK to go into a Skink unit or something… so priority again!
And lost… oh dear! MK died, one Salamader was rallied back and I couldn’t achieve any objectives. I had three units left so retreated the Rippas, and ran my 2 x 5 Ardboyz who had been holding my home objectives. If I lost priority again it would definitely be over…
But I won it! I did Ferocious Advance with the 3 units I had left and I was 21-14 with 20 wounds for my opponent to kill my battleline. Kroak was mostly out of range, so cast comet chipping some wounds on the Ardboyz and killed Rippa. He then rallied a second Salamander into a unit and teleported them to 9″ away… and fired! He killed a full unit with shooting (despite the shields), and then went for a charge… and 11″ (getting his secondary), made the charge and then went mad on the attacks again. I had lost by 1 point in the last turn and missed out on a 4-1… LOST 21-22
Summary
A great fun army and definitely got some legs… I’m taking them again this weekend to War in the Heartlands, so hopefully I’ll see some of you there.
Two submissions this week under the #Woehammer on Twitter. Both members of the team.
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Dave has started a new 40k 9th Edition army, this time focusing on the Space Marine Chapter the Imperial Fists. The model below is his first Marine for the army, and I think you’ll agree its a stunner!
Dave’s Imperial Fist
Dave has gone for an awesome golden yellow armour tone and black trim denoting the 5th Company.
The detail on the base is great, and I especially love the coiled barbed wire and spent casings next to the dismembered head.
It’s little different this week for Declan’s submission, here we have an army shot of the force he took to Mancunian Carnage last weekend.
The blue armour really stands out along with the spots of Red. Declan has joked in the past that his Orcs have been called the Crimson Fists. It’s a great army and Declan finished the weekend 3-2!
And talking of Declan’s fantastic tournament performance, only yesterday he was interviewed by the AOS Coach on YouTube about the Gloomspite Gitz! I’ve included the video below for you to watch.
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When Ironjawz were released as one of the first new armies in Age of Sigmar the Brutes, Gore Gruntas and Maw Krusha were lovely models which went straight into my collection.
Unfortunately the rules always meant that my Big Waaagh and Ironjawz army kept coming back to Ardboyz, with minimal Brutes. I loved the models, but only had 10 painted, and the rules didn’t encourage me to buy any more.
However, that’s all changed and the new rules have prompted me to have a 50% increase on Brutes for Mancunian Carnage 2021.
5 Brutes with Jagged Gore-Hackas for Bloodfists!
What has made me change my mind… well the warscroll has said an upgrade, points are similar and Ardboyz have now become support / objective holders. Also, Big Waaagh! doesn’t care about number of troops anymore. In case you’ve missed the warscroll – especially as they’ve disappeared from GW website (!) here it is:
Loads of options!
My Brutes all have Jagged Gore-Hackas, which is fortunate given the above. They have 2″ reach so can deploy in two ‘ranks’ on the table and still hit the enemy, and the additional pip of rend over and above the Brute Choppas more than makes up for the slight reduction in attacks. Especially as we’re hitting big things on a 2+ without a command point – Smashing!
Finally, they also have a great new special rule You Messin’ which means that models with a wounds characteristic of 1 can’t contest objectives. Sure, most things with 1 wounds within 3″ of this unit should be dead, but if a few Skeletons or Zombies survive this rule gives the Brutes the edge. Kunnin!
Sure they are slow on paper, but we’ve got lots of Mighty Destroyers available (free movement), and most scenarios start much closer to each other now. I’m taking my 15 to Carnage, and have 10 more on order for War in the Heartlands later in the month.
I’ll let you know how I get on, and how I find using the new & improved Brutes and their successes. Bashin’
Note – this was written for AOS3 – we are now in AOS4, so some of the comments below may no longer be valid
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I am at heart a Destruction player, having played them at most of the tournaments I’ve been to since AOS was launched. My main army is definitely the Gloomspite Gitz, but they have been in a bad place for some time and so I switched to Orruk Warclans at the end of AOS2. This wasn’t my first time with them as I did play with a lot of Ardboyz in AOS1 under ‘MoComp’ before points were released by GW.
So, as I’ve got a little experience with them I’ve decided to do a bit of wishlisting for the new release of the Orruk Warclan book which goes on pre-order this weekend (11th & 12th September 2021). I don’t have any insider knowledge, so all this is bound to be wrong, but it’ll be interesting (to me at least!) to see how wrong.
Overall Book
We already know that the book includes the new forces of the Kruleboyz and that it still includes the Ironjawz and Bonesplitters. There have also been releases about the Kruleboyz with the Dominion box and over on Warhammer Community in the last few months. So I’ll try to incorporate what we’ve learnt below.
Allegiances
I hope we keep the allegiances with Ironjaws, Bonesplitters and Kruleboyz and that we retain a Big Waaagh! version.
I’d like to mostly retain the Waaagh points, especially the extra ‘+’ to cast. It would be good if it were a true allegiance with their own artefacts, magic etc… but I don’t see that happening as it could get too confusing.
Hopefully we’ll also keep some of the sub-allegiances although now would be a great time to remove the Realmgate requirement for the Bloodtoofs!
Ironjawz
The Ironjawz are good, and doing reasonably well in AOS3 with the Maw Krushas doing a lot of the heavy lifting, so I don’t think much needs to be changed. However if I’m wish listing the following could do with attention:
Gordrakk to be on a level with some of the other God characters, and at least as good as the Megaboss on MawKrusha. Ability to take mount trait for BigTeef (his MawKrusha); or a significant point reduction
Megaboss on MawKrusha looks like they may lose their 3+ armour save which if there isn’t a way to get back to 3+ will need a points reduction. Command Ability needs to be replaced as it another +1 to hit. Charge mortal wounds back to 4+
Orruk Ardboyz – they currently have same function as the Brutes. Turn them into Brutes light, with worse attacks and lower bravery. To be used for objective holding whilst Brutes go forward.
Gore-Gruntas – 2″ reach
Bonesplitters
Bonesplitters did well at Nashcon with two army lists, but haven’t shown up in many other tournaments. Perhaps the old list of ‘Kunning Rukk’ which shot people off left a bad taste in the mouth, but with LRL now on the board and lots of Sons of Behemat there may be play with the Bonesplitters now.
Wurrgog Prophet – A good scroll
Savage Big Boss – Command Ability to work with shooting as well
Maniak Weirdnob – Spell replicates above command ability. Would be good to have a difference
Wardokk – A scroll prayer
Savage Orruks / Savage Orruk Moarboyz – combine these warscrolls
Savage Boarboyz / Savage Boarboy Maniaks – combine these warscrolls
Savage Big Stabbas – help with survivability (maybe -1 to hit with shooting if near Savage Orruks, not closest to enemy)
Savage Orruk Arrowboyz – Swap the Loadsa Arrows ability for something that doesn’t add dice (more low quality shots!!)
Kruleboyz
We only know what we’ve been told about these so I’m bound to miss some units. They rely on poison to do their damage, and unlike the other Orruks have ranged attacks.
Allegiance abilities to help with the poison (ie double down!)
Hobgrots Battleline if and get Orruk benefits for a build or Allegiance
Monsters to be playable to fairly pointed
Shooting to be able to affect the meta, by outdistancing LRL, and being able to hurt monsters
Some of the fun traps which were written about in the Dominion novel.
Kragnos
The elephant in the room. Hopefully he’ll be good enough to see play in some competitive builds, and will be given a mortal wound after save. Whilst he is a 2+ save there is so much that can avoid this at times he feels like he’s wearing paper… which to be fair, he’s not wearing a lot.
I would also like to see GW giving a different point value for Kragnos with the other Destruction forces (particularly Gloomspite Gitz)
Summary
Orruk Warclans are a Destruction book that definitely has options and can compete for 4-1 in the hands of an experienced player, so my primary hope is that the book doesn’t become bad with the new release. All the parts are there, and hopefully the Kruleboyz won’t be a third wheel and break the book.
And I suppose another one – hopefully the Kruleboyz are playable on their own without the other Warclans Orruks being necessary.
What do you think? What are you hoping for? How wrong am I?
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Straight off, I want to say this – if you’re just after a story from the Warhammer Age of Sigmar this is a fine book, well written with an interesting underlying story.
However, I picked it up because it was the companion book to the recent release of Age of Sigmar 3, which is the first edition to have Destruction (one of the Age of Sigmar factions) as well as the Stormcast. As such, I’m looking forward to more expansion of the history and background of the Destruction races – especially the new Kruleboyz released in the boxed set…
… Unfortunately this book didn’t achieve this. There was the (now reasonably common) Black Library usage of a human as the main character to make them more relatable – in this case a brother and sister whose father had been killed by Orruks (Orcs) before they escaped to Excelsis (a very large city in Ghur – the Realm of Beasts). If you’re not into Warhammer I’ve made this sound a bit confusing, but you can honestly read this book with no knowledge of the background.
The Realm of Ghur becomes one of the things that the siblings must overcome and they encounter monsters not released by Games Workshop (Kraken), and some that have (Kraken Eater Gargant), on their Crusade. If this is familiar to those who have read the Age of Sigmar rule book, it’s because Crusades are a new way to play the game… all good so far.
But… the story revolves around the brother (Niksar), with his sister being relegated to a supporting role. This is unfortunate given the need for Warhammer to appeal to more women readers and gamers, and missed a perfect opportunity in a big release book.
And then my biggest complaint – there is a little background on the Stormcast from the box, but the Kruleboyz (Orruks) only make an appearance late and are hidden behind their mist, only appearing to attack and then be attacked by the Stormcast. There was little development for them and – as they are a new race – I expected a lot more. It’s about time Black Library released some books from the perspective of the ‘bad guys’ which we know they can do, but which is sadly lacking for the new army – and indeed all the Destruction forces.
Disappointing
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
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Starting in August the guys at Woehammer are taking part in their own Path to Glory campaign. However is one with a twist, as we’re going to incorporate an actual 3D map!
The island of Losille
Right now, the guys are all deciding what armies they should play, as well as what starting size they’d like to be (as well as getting ready for Carnage next weekend). It’s been agreed that it doesn’t matter what starting size you pick, but if you fight a smaller army, then you must pick units from your roster to suit that size battle.
The game will also be using fog of war rules, so each player will be given a number of options as there starting location, which they then list in order of preference. Once it’s been revealed which starting location they’ve been given, each player will be shown the territories bordering their own and battle can commence.
Battles will take place in the same manner as a normal Path to Glory game, and players can claim territory from spending glory points after a game. However, once players have decided what they want that territory to be (i.e. Old Fort etc), then it remains as such even when taken over by another player.
As the game progresses we’re hoping the map will reflect the players choices in the campaign, with players being responsible for building on and naming territory.
I’ll write an article each month summarising what’s happened as well as posting regular YouTube videos of the battles themselves.
