Ironjawz: Good & Bad 2021

   Written by Benjamin Lolmaugh

GOOD:

Brutes - I've always touted Brutes. Always, just look back to my article back in 2019  Chaos Spawn Wargaming - GHB19 Brutes. They served me well at NoVa Open and they will continue to do so. That's a great feeling though, isn't it, the unit that symbolizes the faction, huge hulking orruk warriors ready to through down are getting some love. The unit itself took at 10 pt increase, which is fine. 160 is probably their sweet spot. The main changes to the Brutes are that the Jagged Gore-Hacka (the 2" range polearm) got a small rend boost from -1 Rend to -2. That's a 22% difference in converting wounds over onto 4+ Save models. The ever-present Gore-Choppa also got a boost to -2 Rend. 

The real question is, "Can 10 Brutes with Jagged Gore-Hackas kill Archaon?" And that answer is YES, with Duff Up da Big Thing and Violent Frenzy from your local Warchanter. If you'd call a Waaagh! and had Violent Frenzy, 10 Brutes could take down a Mega Gargant in 1 combat.  

The second reason to take Brutes, besides how awesome they look on the table, is the new rule, "You Messin?". Enemy models with a Wounds characteristic of 1 that are within 3" of the Brutes unit CAN NOT contest objectives. This means that even a lone Brute can steal or hold a crucial objective against a tide of Skaven, Zombies, Grots and most of Nighthaunt. The only bad thing I can think about for the You Messin ability is maybe its a signal that we are going to lose Ardboyz eventually. The Ardboyz box is 14 years old now.

BAD:

Ardboyz - Look at that! A great segway. I'm a true Master of Ceremonies. Anyways, these guys took a hard nerf and a tiny points reduction for our troubles and a little consolation prize. So lets start with the positives, although few, because I am a positive guy and this is my show. Point reduction. 95pts for 5 to 85pts for 5. Drawn to the Waaagh! may help to keep an objective but I rather use my command abilities on killing stuff instead of rolling like 9 dice hoping for 4+s. 

Now the bad... I hate this part. Units size is still locked to 5. This significantly reduces the uses for this unit. I need to spend my precious reinforcement points on an OK anvil... not what I had in mind as an aggressive orruk player. 5 mans can stay on an objective if almost nothing goes near them, if you want them to fight in the mid-field you're gonna need at least 10 and a significant investment in support. The unit size really makes no sense to me, the Start Collecting or Get Started or whatever they call it now, comes with 10 boyz, the box comes with 15 boyz, why are we locked to 5? Make it 10 and they can have some value as a sponge and be worthy of the necessary support. Negative #H. The attack profile. No more Rend. The unit lost the -1 Rend. I am assuming that this is because the Ironjawz Waaagh gives Rend and it would be a little strange if the small orruks have -2 Rend. Combined with the worse attack profile of 3 attacks 4+/3+ you're seeing a 23% decrease in damage output. There was a reduction of 1 to the Bravery characteristic. Lastly that I will discuss here is the simplification of the command models, the champion (boss) loses his +2 attacks for a +1 instead, The musician only adds 1 to the charge roll instead of +2 and the banner only adds 1 Bravery (back to 6, the same as Brutes) instead of +2.

All for what? 10 points? No thanks...But it can be fixed with points.

GOOD:

Mawkrusha - This thicc boy is still an ugly cruise missile aiming to Rip and Tear through the enemy lines. Down 15pts in the Monster Meta is a Gork-send. This chunk-of-love this ready and willing to mingle. 480 pts means that the Mawkrusha can be added to a 1000 pt army... not sure I'd do that to my opponent but maybe for a 1-dayer. The attack profile got significantly better. The whole profile goes from 10.78 wounds vs a 4+ save to 14.52 wounds. All without mount traits or artefacts. Speaking of mount traits, I think Destructive Bulk got an upgrade to combine with Mean Un with Stomp. The old version averaged about 2.67 mortals before fighting, with Mean Un and the new Destructive Bulk rule, you're looking at 7.5 mortals! Before the fight. Skull Shaking Bellow, that allows you to select 3 units within 18" (Thanks to the Megaboss having Totem keyword). 

BAD:

Ironjawz Command Traits - What a shit show. Two of the three are basically 1 use a game. For Mighty Waaagh Leader, you can only Waaagh once and you're re-rolling charges, while useful is only wholly within 12" of the general, but if you've been using Mighty Destroyers to move 2-3 units per turn you should be close enough not to need it. Hulking Brute gives you a chance, to do D3 mortal. Meh, but its only on 1 unit and only once he charges. Maybe, maybe, maybe on a Mean Un Mawkrusha to deal D6+4+D3 mortals on the turn you charge.  Mega Bossy is the only Megaboss specific command ability in which you can use Mighty Destroyers even if it's already been used that same phase. Good, only in turn what, 1 or two. It seems to me to be a worse version of Skilled Leader (at the start of the your hero phase, on a 5+ get a CP). Touched by the Waaagh could be useful if used to deal mortal wounds to Ardboyz but for 5 points more, you could just have another caster.

Stats referenced in this article were found using AoS Statshammer at https://aos-statshammer.herokuapp.com/

Dice probability calculator provided by https://www.omnicalculator.com/statistics/dice