I had a 1,000 point
AOS Tournament last weekend in Salem, Oregon, taking Ironjaws. Shout out to Borderlands Games!
Megaboss
Warchanter
'Ard Boys x10
Brutes x5
Brutes x5
Gore Gruntas x3
Battalion: Ironfist
Destruction, my command trait was Bellowing Tyrant (pick a unit within
d6" of General, that unit gets +1 hit). My General got the Meteoric Hammerblade which was meh, and my Warchanter got the Gem of Seeing. These abilities were all randomly rolled at the beginning of the tournament and persisted through all three rounds. We played Pitched Battle Scenarios from the
GHB.
#1. Replacing my Shaman with the Warchanter and picking up the Ironfist Battalion Warscroll turned my army into a wrecking ball. It gave me speed and that sweet, sweet +1 to hit. I'm sold. At this point's level, you need the Warchanter more than the Shaman.
#2. First Turn Charges are a thing with this army. Typically with the Gore Gruntas. So much so that I really feel like replacing a unit of Brutes with another unit of Gore Gruntas. The ability to start a fight in my opponent's deployment zone before they even get a chance to move is HUGE. And with a good armor save and a healthy amount of wounds, they stick around for a while. They will eventually die, but hopefully my 'Ardboys and Brutes will be stuck in by then.
#3. The Warchanter and Megaboss got left behind a lot. They get only +
d6" in the hero phase compared to the
2d6" the other units received. The result was them running a lot. Especially Krum (my Megaboss), who couldn't seem to roll above a two for his extra moves. So I ended up with Gore Gruntas as a shock force, 'Ardboys and Warchanter as a Vanguard, and the Megaboss and both Brutes the follow up/hammer blow.
Game 1: Krum vs. Nurgle- lots of Plague Bearers (3 units), Drones, and a Nurgle Deamon. The Scenario was Escalation. There was this huge, stupid sized pyramid in my deployment zone that would either force me to be way out of position for anything, split my forces, or concentrate into a "conga line". I went with the conga line, and basically, it was Gore Gruntas first, then 'Ardboys and Warchanter, followed by Brutes, then Megaboss, and final Brutes. End of turn 5, I had 16
VP to his 4. He had only a couple Plague Bearer's left. I had about half my army. Krum took 6 mortal wounds fighting the Nurgle Deamon- every time he rolled a six on his save, I'd take a mortal wound.
Lucky guy...
Game 2: Ogres! A very elite Ogre army! 14 models- two units of 3 Ogors, one unit of 6 Ironguts, a Butcher, and a Tyrant. The Scenario was Three Places of Power. Right off the bat, I was able to charge one unit of Ogors on his flank with my Gore Gruntas, and charged his other unit of Ogors in the middle with his Butcher on one side, and his Tyrant on the other. The Brutes and Krum formed a second wave. This battle... OMG, Ironguts! Those guys put out a stupid amount of wounds. I charged them with my Brutes, thinking I'll take a couple out, then grind them down. Nope. I failed five wound rolls and took 15 wounds!!! I was like "What?!?!
LOL" Lost an entire unit of Brutes in one close combat. Never had that happen before. I thought it was a fluke, and charged them with my second unit of Brutes. Same result. Opps. At this point, turn 3, I had 1 victory point, and my opponent still hadn't moved out of his deployment zone when I killed his Tyrant (The Butcher went down at the top of turn 2). My opponent conceded the game because there was no way he could score more victory points then me (no hero's left), and the victory condition is the player with the most
VP's wins. It's a weird victory condition. If anyone plays this scenario in a tournament, I encourage you to have a chat with your opponent and the
TO about the victory condition. My opponent in this game had a better then good chance of wiping me out on turn 3, as all I had left was my Warchanter, two Gore Grunta, and Krum, and he had 5 Ironguts.
Game 3: Chaos- some Chaos Knights on horses, cultists, Plague Bearers, HUGE Drone Squad, Nurgle Basses, Screamers and a Herald. Scenario was Blood and Glory. Well, I only had six units, and he had seven. I came to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to be able to hold all four objectives. So... I charged. Locked him down right outside his deployment zone with a Gore Grunta charge and a very lucky hero phase move and 'Ardboys charge. After that, it was just a slow, methodical grind. I was about to table him at the bottom of turn 4 when he conceded. Seven rounds of close combat...
Three major victories for me, and I won the tournament! The armies: 2x Ironjaws, 2x Ogres, 1xDeath (Mortach and stuff), 4x Chaos, one Stormcast. Next month we are stepping up to 1,500 points, and I really want to bring a Megaboss on a Mawcrusher, but I'm not sure what I'm going to get rid of for him. Sack the current Megaboss? Maybe the Battalion Warscroll? Why is the Mawcrusher 520 points?!?!
LOL Yeah, I could bring more 'Ardboys and Gore Gruntas, which would probably be the wise thing to do, but... Mawcrusher! Plus, over half the armies here had that one, big nasty Hero. One of the Chaos players had Skarbrand who rampaged and killed everything, but he didn't have much else for objectives, and one of the Ogor players had some big beefy hero on a Mastadon that tanked wounds (you do half damage against it? Really?) and an auto wound bubble? Or something like that. Plus there was a Mortach. If the trends continue... I'm gonna need a big, beefy hero as well.