u/rodgar8

The biggest question of all! What do you find the best and worst about the ironjawz as a whole? Looks aside considering I imagine we all picked them because how awesome they look. BEST: I love how they are extremely beginner friendly with not too many rules and with a standard idea of you want to go punch your enemy and get into a good scrap. BUT the more you play them the more you realize how big the skill ceiling is for them with things like mighty destroyer. All of them mostly being a +3 save and mighty destroyer can make them forgiving for some slight miss positioning. WORST: For an army that mainly wants to fight our units warscrolls for attacks are a bit odd ( not a lot, just a little ). Ard boyz and brutes both being +4 to hit and +3 to wound just doesn’t feel right when you see the size difference between the models and the weapons

Bit of a stretch since this isn’t truly a unit but it is something I’d like discussion on since it is our spearhead and keeping the same title will make it easier to find in the future. BEST: A great box to get started with the army since it includes all of our infantry but gameplay wise they are fantastic at showing what orcs can do in a smaller format. Ard boyz to hold the line while ragerz charge in recklessly (reinforcing is an amazing addition for them) WORST: Your brutes can feel very underpowered in this variation. They don’t come in till your 3rd turn, have to be 6 inches away, don’t have their anti infantry weapons, and no gore choppa. So you have 2 turns to use them and there is times where they drop in and miss the charge and are a glorified point stealer but brutes are supposed to be our big killers not objective monkeys. But even when you do hit a charge +4 to hit and +3 to wound with 1 rend leads to some very unsatisfying results at times. I’d like the brutes to get some buffs and maybe come in on turn 2 instead

BEST: Works well in a pinch to create a blockade and funnel your opponents directly where you want them and it’s not a high level threat of a spell so opponents won’t waste resources to deal with it since our other manifestations are stronger BUT you can get a lot of value with this if played right WORST: It really doesn’t do that much ( the control reduction is nice ). But more often you may not even be summoning this since we have better spells that are a higher value to the army. So worst is how situational it is for something you have to buy and paint

BEST: This is pretty much a must summon turn 1. On its worst end it can provide protection and block for your shaman BUT the ability to add 1 or 2 to a casting or chanting roll till the start of your next turn is amazing. It guarantees you are going to get your spell or prayer off and avoid being unbound WORST: Rolling dice equal to the buff bonus you pick is cool and all ( mainly just the charge bonus on a +5 ) but it feels dumb to punish you for using the manifestations ability with taking unwardable damage on a 1 or 2.

Going to split up the individual manifestations so they each can have their time in the limelight. BEST: Definitely our best manifestation, looks and utility wise. Since they don’t have a move characteristic they can use wandering destruction the turn they are set up to get instant pay off. Being able to stomp your opponent for some mortals and reduce the charge is very helpful and can buy you some time WORST: It feels weird that it goes off on a +2 on a d3. You can just miss the roll and nothing happens after you just had to roll to summon it and hope your opponent didn’t roll to unbind your spell.

We may be out of undiscussed units but there is still plenty of things in the army to talk about. BEST: It looks pretty cool and is free to bring. WORST: It really doesn’t do much and isn’t worth the hassle of transporting since it’s so tall. At most it can make a spellcaster a bit tankier but ironjawz aren’t really a castle style army

The final unit in our roster to wrap up this whole saga! BEST: He is the GOAT! Our crit mortal supplier. Giving any unit crit mortals is so strong with our army since with WAAGH and other buffs we can toss out a lot of attacks. Making our armies +4 to hit not so bad. He is basically a must take in every army WORST: Personally his weapon choice just seems pointless. While the ward smashing choppa is cool you’ll always pick the tongs for a better guarantee of crit mortals.

A funky little guys BEST: Gives us access to our lore of magic and all manifestations so is extremely essential in most armies and his ability to become wizard 2 is great since he is our only spell caster. WORST: Like how the warchanter is our only priest option, the shaman is our only wizard option. For our only choice I wish he had more spice to him like a unique spell

BEST: Pretty much everything! Our only priest so gives us access to our strong prayers, +4 save so isn’t that fragile, the weirdfist battle formation lets him have a ward +6 aura, and just overall he looks sooooo cool and is the orciest orc WORST: His ability, while very thematic, sucks and hardly is used if ever. Needing to kill a model with 6 attacks on +4 to hit and +3 to wound with no rend isn’t worth the risk for some ritual points. So it would be nice if he could get a new ability, something to maybe help him be priest 2 or something

Like his counter parts I think he looks really cool but he is the one model I don’t have so sadly I have nothing to add but I look forward to what you all have to say about him.

My all time personal favorite model hobby and gameplay wise! BEST: He is able to take heroic traits, artifacts of power, and monstrous traits allowing to be quite a powerhouse! Fast Un’ on him makes him such an unpredictable menace too, he is able to wait in the back or snag objectives while he waits for the perfect moment to do a 20 inch move in one turn and smash into his perfect match up WORST: The base being really big ( while so cool and I don’t want it changed ) can make it hard for him to get into some spots or can cause him to screen out your own units

BEST: He is a fantastic model to assemble and paint. His big size is so welcoming to beginners and he just looks so awesome! Plus he is the leader of our spearhead so he actually gets use WORST: He is not worth bringing in full AOS. He is way too expensive and it’s really hard to get use of his ability plus his weapon is only 1 REND! How is that massive axe 1 rend

Our massive center piece model! So amazing looking and fun to paint. BEST: His special Waaagh! He calls giving units also a +1 to hit on top of the other bonuses is just soooooo satisfying WORST: Not being able to take any heroic traits, artifacts, or even monstrous traits is really a bummer and often is the reason I’ll choose the Megaboss on mawcrusha over him.

All that is left is to discuss our heroes, all of which I love the designs of. BEST: For only 90pts he adds great buffs to your ardboyz! Letting them shield bash on +5 can lead to some unexpected damage and the extra rally dice helps the ardboyz keep being anvils WORST: He does only help Ardboyz so you need to run a bunch of ardboyz to get value from him and keep them close but once they start to lose then he isn’t much help to the rest of your army besides calling a WAAGH

Just like the previous I lack any big pig models so take it away comments.

This is the one model ( plus its variants ) that I don’t own so I have nothing to contribute here but I’ll leave it you y’all in the comments. BEST: They look cool WORST: I don’t own it.

Our only unit of cavalry and sadly I have no great experiences with them BEST: They are really cool looking models that were fun to assemble and paint ( too expensive though ) and they are cavalry so good for movement to help steal objectives or complete battle tactics WORST: Overall the entire warscroll for them flat out is just rough. Riders hitting on +4 and wounding on +3 with 1 rend and 1damage is very lack luster and the boars hitting on +4 and wounding on +2 is fantastic but 0 REND is ridiculous. Clearly they do there best charging other cavalry but most other cavalry is faster then them so you really rely on your opponent charging your infantry and not using power through to get too far away.

The last of our infantry! BEST: They are a cheap unit with a built in +5 ward WORST: They are just brute ragerz with a mask so they are just the same unit with a different flavor. I honestly have only used them once and for 90pts I wish I just brought the ard boy big boss

BEST: They are a cheap unit with run and charge and strike first so they are pretty good at grabbing points or adding a little extra damage with their strike first before your other unit fights WORST: With a 5+ save and only 9hp total in the unit they get picked off very fast and easily. Plus there movement is only 4inches even though they aren’t wearing armor so you are relying heavily on the run roll

BEST: Game wise they are amazing damage dealers. Hobby wise they are such fun models to paint and look at with a fun variety in weapon choices. WORST: Why are their massive weapons on +3 to wound! They should not have the same hit and wound as a tiny ardboy when they are supposed to be BRUTES. Makes it feel like you need to reinforce brutes cause without it they can miss too many attacks.