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Big ork fanboy across any genre (played an orc in wow/wc3, Of Orcs And Men is an awesome game, any time in random games i get to be an orc im an orc, etc etc) so im obligated to get Ironjawz.

I'm also trying to avoid doing what i did with my 40k orks....that is i somehow ended up with like 10 trukks, 5 battlewagons, 5 dakkajets, 6 deffdredds, 6 killakanz, around 250 boyz between slugga/shoota configs, about 40 bikes/deffkoptas....you get the idea lol
All the information about starting Ironjaws i can find is about a year old so im not sure about their validity anymore. Is the Ironjawz Army box worth investing in or should i just double-up on the Start Collecting (since thats where all the saving is) and single-buy a Megaboss? More than likely eventually i'll be getting the Mawcrusha just not out the gate.

Also i hear that the Battletome is a pointless purchase unless you want the fluff and pretty pictures. This still true?

The only thing in the battletome you can't get anywhere else are the battalions, so fairly pointless yea.

The start collecting is great value, but you don't get any brutes who do all the main lifting; pig riders just don't quite cut it. You'd need 2-4 boxes of brutes, megabosses, possibly a wizard if you want to use endless spells or some battalions

Yeah i had a feeling the brutes were the bread and butter unit. Not really a fan of the pigrider visuals either, but theyre basically free with the Start Collecting lol.
This will be the 5th game i get active in that isnt exactly cheap so im trying to be picky with my purchases lol. In 40k i basically bought everything...that was a mistake and a half. Only thing i dont own is FW stuff, Stompa, and a Gorkanaut.

The "Ironjawz Army"(assuming you're referring to the $175 item) isn't a box, it's just a collection of stuff.

You have two options to work with:
Start Collecting Ironjawz
and
Weirdnob Warband

Both are discount sets(Weirdnob was intended for Skirmish, hence the smaller unit size on the Ardboyz) and both together work really well. I generally will suggest if you're buying one to buy the other as well--and if you want Brutes, to just buy the Weirdnob Warband instead. $15 more nets you half of a unit of Ardboyz(they come 10 to a unit in Matched Play) and a Shaman. The same is true with Boarboyz, if you want any of those--just buy the SC instead.

The Battletome has Warscroll Battalions, so that's a thing to factor in.

i completely missed that weirdnob box. Derp.
This is why you ask around before you buy!

Yeah that + the starter box is definitely the better purchase. 15USD more than the Army box gets me 5 more ardboyz and a weirdnob than just the armybox...yeesh thats so much better lol (counting buying a random megaboss there)

Thanks!

Ironjawz have probably my favorite models in AoS, but I'm curious: they only have three different units and a bunch of heroes. Are they more or less mono-build and as such a bit boring in the long run? I really don't know how they play so is there something beneath the surface that a complete AoS newbie such as myself can't see?

Out of curiosity, is this the item you're referring to as "army box"?

If so I feel obliged to mention the following:
Whenever GW has an "army box" product, you will see a picture of the actual box on the webstore.
Ex:


The Ironjawz army is a Start Collecting set and two boxes at their normal retail price.

Yes thats the kit i was referring to. Never bought one before so i didnt know it was just an easy 1-click buy sort of thing instead of an actual differently packaged product.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Yes thats the kit i was referring to. Never bought one before so i didnt know it was just an easy 1-click buy sort of thing instead of an actual differently packaged product.

Well, now you know!

Always check to see if there's any boxes shown in the pictures. That lets you know if it's a savings bundle or a 1-click Carpal Tunnel Syndrome fighting bundle.

 Weazel wrote:
Ironjawz have probably my favorite models in AoS, but I'm curious: they only have three different units and a bunch of heroes. Are they more or less mono-build and as such a bit boring in the long run? I really don't know how they play so is there something beneath the surface that a complete AoS newbie such as myself can't see?

Anyone care to enlighten me on this?

From what I've seen they basically are the "charge forward and smash face" faction with overwhelming melee. They can mix it up with their Shaman a bit though, more now with the realm spells and Endless spells playing a roll.

Thing is they are compatible allies with all the other Destruction forces so if you ever get bored with your greenskin elites krumping your opponents with just choppas' & muscle you can spice things up with Beastclaw earthshaking cavalry, Bonesplitterz arrow storms, scurrying Grot hordes, crazy Squig herds or just come packing a giant monster and watch the humies run.

That said, you'll probably have a lot of fun with the elites as you have to plan out how best to use their brute force against enemies who'll use every other trick in the book to beat you like trying to bog your warriors down with swarms or try to outspeed you to objectives as examples.

how does the alliance thing work anyway? can you take anything from a given Alliance or is there some kind of limitation you gotta follow?

Basically if you want to be "Ironjawz" and have access to their abilities (some of which help moving your slower stuff quite a bit) then you're limited in your non Ironjawz models. At 1000 points, 200 can be allies. At 2000, 400. If you're doing open or narrative one unit in four can be allies.

Ironjawz are limited to the following for allies: Aleguzzler Gargants, Bonesplitterz, Gitmob Grots, Greenskinz, Moonclan Grots, Troggoths

If you want anything beyond the limit or outside those factions, then your army will lose the Ironjawz allegiance specific abilities and you'll have to settle for Grand Alliance: Destruction abilities. Okay, but not as useful in my opinion.

Basically take an orruk warboss with banner. Great synergy of reroll 1s to wound, on top of being able to boost your hit rolls to 2+ rerolling 1s/all and then command abilities for lots of attacks

What's everyone's thoughts on ardboys?

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
What's everyone's thoughts on ardboys?

They're a solid anvil unit, and in a unit of 30 a good efficient target for warchanter and megaboss buffs. They've gotten slightly less tankier now that they've clarified that the shields don't prevent mortal wounds, but 2W with a 4+ save is still pretty beefy as far as battleline units go. I feel like they help clear chaff/other battleline units more efficiently than brutes do, who are better suited hunting down elites/leaders "due to their duff up the big thing" rule. Currently, I use a mix of big choppas and 2 handers for their build, with the changes to mystic shield and the loss of the 6++ mortal wounds, I feel like arming them for damage makes more sense.

The only problem with the Weirdnob Warband box is that it gives you only 5 ardboys because it was kind of meant for skirmish play. In normal games, you have to take ardboys in groups of 10. So if you get that box, you probably want to get two of them.

 TheWaspinator wrote:
The only problem with the Weirdnob Warband box is that it gives you only 5 ardboys because it was kind of meant for skirmish play. In normal games, you have to take ardboys in groups of 10. So if you get that box, you probably want to get two of them.

Yeeeeeah...but the Weirdnob Warband is also a great way to get Brutes and Weirdnobs, with Ardboys being a bonus.

Yea really sucks about the shield changes. That being said the...ardfist? Got a lot better since you can recycle all the dead units

 Kanluwen wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:
The only problem with the Weirdnob Warband box is that it gives you only 5 ardboys because it was kind of meant for skirmish play. In normal games, you have to take ardboys in groups of 10. So if you get that box, you probably want to get two of them.

Yeeeeeah...but the Weirdnob Warband is also a great way to get Brutes and Weirdnobs, with Ardboys being a bonus.

I didn't say it was a BIG problem. It's just worth pointing out that unless you buy them in even numbers, you'll have leftover Ardboys.

 TheWaspinator wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:
The only problem with the Weirdnob Warband box is that it gives you only 5 ardboys because it was kind of meant for skirmish play. In normal games, you have to take ardboys in groups of 10. So if you get that box, you probably want to get two of them.

Yeeeeeah...but the Weirdnob Warband is also a great way to get Brutes and Weirdnobs, with Ardboys being a bonus.

I didn't say it was a BIG problem. It's just worth pointing out that unless you buy them in even numbers, you'll have leftover Ardboys.

Actually, One SC and one Weirdnob box give you 15 Ardboys. Buy one Ardboys box and you have 30!

 Skimask Mohawk wrote:
Yea really sucks about the shield changes. That being said the...ardfist? Got a lot better since you can recycle all the dead units

It got a lot better in the sense that we no longer have to pay reinforcement points to bring em back. However, its only once a game now, and only after they're completely wiped out, making it so that its best with 10 man units and you need to really play the long game since the new respawn units won't be relevant until mid-late game. You also have to be very conservative with your battalion's Warchanter, since if he's sniped prior to recycling the ardboys, they're permanently kaput.

 Galas wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 TheWaspinator wrote:
The only problem with the Weirdnob Warband box is that it gives you only 5 ardboys because it was kind of meant for skirmish play. In normal games, you have to take ardboys in groups of 10. So if you get that box, you probably want to get two of them.

Yeeeeeah...but the Weirdnob Warband is also a great way to get Brutes and Weirdnobs, with Ardboys being a bonus.

I didn't say it was a BIG problem. It's just worth pointing out that unless you buy them in even numbers, you'll have leftover Ardboys.

Actually, One SC and one Weirdnob box give you 15 Ardboys. Buy one Ardboys box and you have 30!

Or just buy the Weirdnob box and the Start Collecting box twice
Get 10 brutes and 2 weirdnobs/warcasters, 6 pigriders, and 30 ardboyz
Honestly in 40k if the current ork Start Collecting box existed when i started playing i'd have probably bought that like 4-6 times lol

What is this AoS skirmish anyway? Is it an american thing because the weirdnob bundle is not available in Europe...

Copied from the AoS List section:

Ironjawz are pretty much monobuild. Run straight at the enemy and smash them in melee combat. That's the main strategy of an Ironjawz army. Don't expect them to generate a lot of mortal wounds- though the Shaman can kill a lot of your own guys with d3 mortal wounds when he rolls doubles. Otherwise, the Shaman has Arcane Bolt and Maw-Krusha's can generate mortal wounds as well. The Shaman use to be an overcosted, hopeless model that did very little except kill your own Boyz. Things have changed a little, and he is now worth taking, though he still throws mortal wounds on the Boyz. No mortal wound spamming here! Finally, forget about shooting. You have none.

Making an army is, well, there isn't much depth in units or selection. You'll want to take as many Brutes as you can, as they are the main unit that gets things done in your list. Don't underestimate the effectiveness of the 'Ardboyz. No, they are not as good in melee combat as the Brutes, but they have a lot of stacking bonuses and a lot cheaper then the Brutes. I've had opponents totally ignore my 'Ardboyz because they were so scared of my Brutes, and boy where they in for a surprise when the 'Ardboyz made it into melee. The Gore Gruntas are stupid fast and hit like a ton of bricks if they manage to charge more than 8". Believe it or not, they are actually a great tar pit unit thanks to having 5 wounds each. Many times I've managed a turn 1 or turn 2 charge that totally caught my opponent by surprise and tied up his battle line long enough for the rest of my army to arrive the next turn. Did I mention how fast the Ironjawz are?

The army surprisingly enough synergies very well with itself. Command Abilities and hero abilities all add some kind of melee benefit (more attacks, + to hit, etc), and even better they all stack.

I chose and play Ironjawz because I wanted a low model count army, that didn't require some kind of Rube Goldberg Machine Strategy to win. They are very one dimensional, and easy enough to play. They do not have any tricks, or "Grand Strategy". If all you want to do is roll a lot of dice in melee combat and win, then the Ironjawz are for you. Few other armies can stand against them in melee combat. Another great thing: They are a fast army to play. Not only do they get across the board surprisingly fast, but in actual time to play. Your hero phases are pretty much "I'm WAAAAGH-ing this turn" and that's it. Magic? You'll have maybe one Shaman. Unless you manage to cast Foot of Gork, his phase won't last long. You can skip the entire shooting phase. There has been times when my turn took like 10-15 minutes, combat included. Then I sit around for like, 45 minutes to an hour while my opponent does all his hero phase shenanigans, move, shoot, spells, etc. etc. Yeah, I'll get to roll a dice every once in a while, but overall, you'll have a lot of down time when it isn't your turn, and your turns will go very quick.

Finally, the models are absolutely fantastic! The Megaboss is without a doubt one of the best models GW has ever produced.

Their strategy is one dimensional, but that doesn't mean they're monobuild. You can do gore fist and a ton of pigs, or ardfist and a ton of boys, or ironfist and mix everything in.

Gordrak can pump out mortal wounds against characters, and has been pushing towards the superior choice ever since they nerfed battle brew and mount interactions. With how comma d abilities work now he's now not as much as a tax (you can still waagh with other leaders).

As I said earlier warchanters are pretty crucial to get +1 to hit (stack 2 for most fun) and an orruck warbanner makes the synergy something else entirely

I'd say 2 weird on warbands + an SC is a solid start. Another box of ardboys or brutes + maw krusha and your set.