Overview

Strengths

• Beginner Friendly – While learning the ins and outs of the exact chain of buffs you need to win can take some practice, the army is very easy to understand. Take boys, push forward and clear out.
• Best in the Charge Phase – Probably the best army when it comes to getting the alpha charges. You get access to so many free moves and bonuses to charge you can usually send your entire army into the enemy’s deployment turn 1 and keep them stuck there, if not wipe them out entirely.
• Mobility – Your stuff seems slow but you have a ton of abilities for free moves, runs and charges and a teleport spell. Any army with a reliable teleport has a valuable card in their pocket. Opponents are forced to deploy in such a way as to protect their own objectives and to deny you a place to drop in behind them (which may not be what they wanted to do). Get yourself within charging range, steal an open objective, worlds your oyster!

Weaknesses

• Poor magic – Your casting is not great and there are no built in modifiers for your wizards, so it likely will get shut down against any opponent with a half decent magic phase.
• Substantially weaker after the charge – While not quite as bad as Ogor Mawtribes, most of your damage is going to come in during that initial charge phase. If your opponent can weather the storm your damage output drops rapidly.
• Virtually no ranged – The only ranged attack you have is the Maw-krusha’s scream which isn’t really much of one.
• Very Command Point Heavy – You have a high overhead due to your command points being so valuable on the first and second turn.

Competitive Rating – High

Since launch of the third edition tome, Ironjawz have had a strong running in the competitive meta. There aren’t many armies who can take a properly planned Ironjawz charge on the chin and come out the other side intact. While your units are a bit on the expensive side, you still will have enough to play with to capture points and pin your opponent in their starting zone long enough to take the early lead. You wont last as long in a longer grind out session, but play it right and you wont need to.

Battle Traits

Ironjawz Waaagh!

Once per battle you can pop this in the charge phase, and you get +1 to all charges and an additional rend for the turn. Naturally you will usually pop this turn 1 or 2 and rarely any later than that. Your goal is to get everything in at once. The bonuses are solid on their own but once some of the other charge bonuses come into the picture you start to see why Ironjawz are so well known for their alpha charges.

Mighty Destroyers

Your bread and butter early on and youll get a lot of mileage out of it.  This command ability is used in the Hero phase and actually does three different things depending on the circumstances it is used:

• If the target is more than 12″ from the enemy they get a free move, but cannot run.
• If the target is more than 3″ but 12″ or fewer from an enemy unit they get a free charge
• If the target is already in combat, you get a free pile-in (you do not get to fight, however).

The flexibility and use of this power is absurd. Most Ironjawz are pretty slow, except for Gore-Gruntas and Maw-krushas, which are decent. Move them twice and suddenly it doesn’t seem so bad. A free charge is worth the try, even if its a long shot, because you might get lucky. You can always try in the charge phase when that comes around anyway.

The other key thing to note is because this in the Hero phase your opponent cannot counterplay. That means if you move within 9″ they can’t redeploy, and if you charge they can’t Unleash Hell. Against armies that rely on those command abilities, it can be your easiest way to get into combat with minimal fuss. On the flip side that does mean you cannot use a command point to reroll charges, but that’s ok you can absolutely do that when the charge phase comes in.

While it only works on one unit, Warbosses on Maw-krushas can issue it to 3 units for the price of one, which means getting your entire army in from far away is extremely viable.

Warclans (Subfactions)

The most meta option is going to be Bloodtoofs due to just how insanely good Gore-Gruntas are. If you don’t have a kings ransom to afford an army of all pigs, don’t fret the other 2 options are actually really solid too.

First off, Ironsunz has the best “well rounded” trait, as it works on any unit. You gain a bonus command ability that allows you to attempt a charge at the end of the enemy charge phase if they are within 12″. Since this is the enemy’s charge phase you can wait and see if they charge you first, and then plan accordingly. Smart opponents will plan around this and try and stay outside of your bubble but the mere fact you force them into potentially less than optimum situations is ideal. Pin them down inches away from where they wanted to be, or if they try and be cheeky and hug the edge of an objective with chaff, charge then for stepping on it and take them out so the point remains yours.

For cavalry and pork lovers, Bloodtoofs is the meta pick. The primary reason is that they make Gore-gruntas battleline, allowing you to make a list of all pigs when your heroes are all accounted for. We’ll talk about why they’re so good in the unit section, but they basically fill the roll of charge and murder better than any other unit except maybe a maw-krusha. The faction ability allows any Gore-Grunta a free pile-in at the end of the combat phase, allowing them to tie up another unit without being attacked or just move a little bit closer in the direction they want. If you did wipe out the enemy you were fighting then you get a free move or charge instead. Incredible stuff.

Finally Da Choppas is best if you lean on a more infantry list with lots of Brutes or Ardboyz. Your Warchanter can hit 3 different units with Violent Fury instead of 1, allowing you to cover more of your infantry. You still want to bring 2 Warchanters, probably, and have one buff a Megaboss and another buff your infantry, but the more units you cover the better the payout.

Command Traits

You got 2 sets of command abilities, one for Megabosses and one for Wizards. They’re fine, but not great. There’s a solid argument for bring Master of Magic on a Warboss with Arcane Tome to make up for the lack of casting bonuses.

Brutal Warlords

Hulking Brute – After charging, pick an enemy unit and on a 2+ Deal D3 mortal wounds. Utilitarian and solid, it does the job. B

Mega Bossy – Your warlord can use Mighty Destroyers even if it’s already been used. This can work in some niche cases if you want to have another character use Mighty Destroyers, then have your warlord do it. Your warlord is probably a Megaboss on Maw-krusha, which means you can hit up to 4 units with it. B

Mighty Waaagh Leader – Reroll charges within 12″. It’s not bad but you have a lot of access to reroll charges, it won’t have the longevity of the first 2 choices. B-

Champions of the Weird

For Wizards only, primarily Weirdnob Shamans but also a character with the Arcane Tome.

Touched by the Waaagh! – Pick a unit within 6″ and deal D3 mortal wounds to them, and then gain that number of mortals to the casting bonus. One of the only ways to gain a casting bonus, this isn’t a viable choice. The way it’s written, damage negated doesnt reduce it so ideally you want to try and do the damage to something with a Ward save, like a warboss with Amulet of Destiny, and have a Warchanter heal them later. B+

Master of the Weird – Know an extra spell. You don’t get to cast an extra one so eh. C

Artefacts

3 options, Warboss only (Sorry Weirdnobz and Warchanters!). The options are kind of…not great, it’s worth considering that since you have to take these on Warbosses anyway, the Amulet of Destiny or Arcane Tome are better options. The amulet works its magic best on high wound models, such as the Maw-krusha, and the Arcane Tome allows a Warboss to use Flaming Weapon, or bypass the need to bring a Weirdnob by taking Hand of Gork or Get Em Ladz!.

Armour of Gork – 6+ ward and +1 to hit. However you take -2 to movement and cannot run. This is a deal breaker for an army that is trying to survive on its speed alone. You can get the 6+ ward from the Amulet of Destiny, and +1 to hit bonuses are plentiful. If you take Fast Un’ on your mount you can sort of get around this, so it has some value if you want a tankier warboss. C+

Destroyer – Once per battle, pick one of the bearer’s melee weapons and make it Damage 3 for the turn. Since most of your damage comes from burst damage on the first or second turn, this has some value on a Maw-krusha boss. B+

The Boss Skewer – +1 bravery to friendly units wholly within 18″, -1 Bravery to enemy units within 12″. Without a bunch of stacking buffs, bravery modifiers are pretty useless, junk this. D

Mount Traits

This is just for your Megaboss on Maw-krusha, but the choices are competitive. Rating these is difficult because they all cover different playstyles and about half of them are equally viable depending on what you feel comfortable with. I’d generally pick Fast Un’, Mean Un’ or Loud Un’ and not feel bad about any of those.

• Tough Un’ – Count as your top bracket until you are at half health. A solid, safe choice to keep your warboss dangerous for longer. They do drop off pretty hard, so if you have a more conservative playstyle then you can opt for this but I’d generally go with the Ironjawz mentality and play more aggressively. B
• Fast Un’ – Free normal move once per game in the Hero phase, this is a big one. Ironjawz want to get up close and personal early on so pop this turn 1. Just make sure to use Mighty Destroyers first so you don’t leave your other boyz in the dust, unable to benefit. B+
• Mean Un’ – Stomp does D6 mortals instead of D3. Pairs great with Destructive bulk, excellent choice that is insanely practical. A-
• Loud Un’ – Roar hits all enemy units within 3″ instead of just one unit. Since Hunters of the Heartland is now gone, this has gone up a few ticks in viability. Stage dive into your enemy’s castle and shut it all down B+
• Weird Un’ – The stinker of the bunch, a 4+ ward against mortals from spells. Won’t save you from other abilities or weapons, just not worth it compared to your other choices. D
• Smelly Un’ – -1 to be hit if you did not charge that turn. The problem is you probably always will be charging and the benefit of -1 to be hit isn’t worth it to have to wait a turn. C

Spells – Lore of the Weird

• Da Foot of Gork – Casting value 10. Pick an enemy unit within 18″ and instantly deal D6 mortals, then roll a die and on a 4+ deal another D6. Repeat this process until you roll under a 4. It’s a fun, fluffy spell that unfortunately just doesn’t have enough going for it. The casting value of 10 is insane, without any modifiers thats a less than 17% chance of getting it to work. D6 mortal wounds with a chance to cascade is tempting, but its so wildly swingy it may end up doing very little for your work. Bench it. D
• Mighty ‘Eadbutt – Casting Value 5, pick an enemy hero within 16″ and deal a mortal wound, D3 mortal wounds if it’s a wizard. It’s not bad, it’s a cheaper arcane bolt that is simultaneously more and less restrictive. Not bad for sniping a wizard with a few wounds left on him but you have other, better choices and arcane bolt comes free. C
• Great Green Hand of Gork – Casting Value 7, teleport a unit wholly within 18″ that is not in combat anywhere more than 9″ from the enemy. Take it almost every time. You’ll want a Weirdnob or give another hero the arcane tome just to get it. As an army without any deep strike, you do a lot of footslogging. This spell lets you redeploy things closer to the enemy, move onto an empty objective, its practically mandatory. A
• Get em Ladz! – Casting value 8, all friendly units gain +1 to wound when within wholly within 16″ of the caster. A good spell and worth taking, with some caveats. You generally don’t want a Weirdnob Shaman getting too close to the enemy, so if you want to use this its better to put it on a Warboss on Maw-krusha with the tome. This not only puts it on something you generally want in combat but the big base also expands the range of the spell. It’s a solid choice, but 8 is when casting without modifiers starts to get a little dicey and you may get through a battle without being able to successful cast it. B+

Grand Strategies

Although there’s 5 grand strats in the book you really only get 3 that can be run in Ironjawz because 2 of them require Bonesplitterz or Kruleboyz generals.

• Show em’ Who’s Boss – Have your nominated general kill at least 2 enemy heroes. It’s fine, good even, if you have a Megaboss on Maw-krusha as your general, but its easy for your opponent to disrupt if your opponent keeps their heroes far away or even in the rare case of only having one hero. B
• Waagh! – End the battle with your chosen general or battleline wholly in your deployment zone. Absolute slam dunk, this is pretty much an auto take. Your stuff can move enough that if you have to make a last turn move into the deployment, you usually can, and that’s if you arent already there (you probably are). A
• Krump em’ All! – Requires Gordrakk or Kragnos. End the battle with 3 or fewer enemy units remaining. Unless you fight some cheesy list, unit counts generally are not that high in Sigmar and you should be able to do this consistently, but it requires bringing in at least one pretty expensive hero and Waagh! is right there. C

Battle Tactics

Like the grand strats, they’re divided amongst the 4 armies so we’ll just talk about the ones you can actually do. We won’t score these because Battle Tactics are much more flexible, you can simply not do them if the circumstances don’t permit them.

• Time to get stuck in! – Can only take this in the first or second turn, and get your entire army within 12″ of the enemy by the end. Pretty damn easy, you’ll want to keep your warchanters and weirdnobs way back but you should be able to get everything within 12″ depending on the deployment
• Squish da Puny Gitz – Kill all battleline units. Potentially easy or very hard, depending on how man units are left. Obviously there needs to be at least one left so save this when theres only a few left you feel confident you can finish off.
• Destroyer of Empires – Requires you have Kragnos on the field. You have to pick a piece of faction terrain and destroy it. It’s a bit of a risk, if you have Kragnos and a Megaboss on Maw-krusha have them both attempt to knock it over to be safe.

Core Battalions

Just one for you, Ironjawz Fist for 2-5 troops, get Slayers. As you probably know any Core Battalion not giving you Magnificent, Strategists or Unified is garbage. Ignore this at all costs.

Units

Leaders

Gordrakk

Gordrakk is a tough one to judge. He really isn’t bad, compared to his generic counterpart he gets more attacks from mount and his hand weapons, which also can do mortal wounds to Heroes on 6s (one on wizards, and one on non wizards, but both weapons are the same so it hashes out either way). He has the Strength from Victory ability which all Megabosses share: Any combat phase you killed at least 1 model (including your opponent’s turn) you get a bonus attack to his non-mount attacks and an extra wound (however you do not heal the wound, so you’ll need a Fixin Beat from a Warchanter or heroic healing to bring you back up). This means that the damage potential of your warboss can spiral out of control very quickly. He also has The Voice of Gork which allows you to issue an order to 3 targets instead of one. Compared to the generic he starts with 2 more wounds, and is a naturally a Warmaster so he can issue these orders over a wider range even if he’s not the general. Finally, Destructive Bulk does a few extra Mortal Wounds (scaling with current damage taken) when you do the Stomp Monstrous Action. Minor wrinkle due to how it’s written: you have to actually do damage with Stomp, which means if your opponent manages to pass all their wards, Destructive Bulk won’t kick in. So be especially aware of that when fighting Nurgle.

His problem is he is damned expensive. As of this writing he is 540 points compared to a generic’s 480, and with an army where everything costs so much you’re trying to cut points wherever you can. He’s also a lot more delicate, as he only gets a 4+ save and no way to get a ward. Concentrated fire will bring him down pretty easily. If you already built him up this way, he is not the worst option you can take, but if you’re wondering how to build the kit you bought just go with the generic. If he gets a point drop in a future General’s Handbook he’ll probably get there.

Megaboss on Maw-krusha

You basically need one of these guys to get started with the army. He is 480 points and damn it he will make back every single point. He hits like a truck, can take a beating and keep on ticking. Like Gordrakk he also has Strength from Victory, Destructive Bulk and his own version of Voice of Gork: Skull Shaking Below, which still works exactly the same. The name change is just flavor.

Although functionally weaker, the thing that gets the generic Megaboss ahead of Gordrakk is customizability. You can take several different artefacts to suit your playstyle. Popular choices include:

• Amulet of Destiny – A 6+ Ward pays off on higher wound models, and at 18 the Warboss will go a lot further.
• Arcane Tome – If you want to shave off a few points off your list by not bringing a Shaman, put a tome on your Megaboss. He can use Hand of Gork or Get Em Ladz!, and will probably be closer to your boys in the first place.
• Destroyer – Pop this to get some serious extra damage on a beefy target like a God model.

There’s no real wrong choice here, Megabosses are highly customizable and it’s not uncommon to make a list with two of them. You have to really make up for those lost points, but they’re hardly wasted. As for weapon loadouts, always the Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist. You only lose 2 attacks, but your best damage counts from the mount anyway. Having a 3+ save is invaluable and one of the reasons this guy sits above Gordrakk.

Orruk Megaboss

Honestly, not worth it compared to the mounted version. He’s slower, less punchy and has watered down version of his abilities. He still gets a bonus wound and attack each turn he kills a model, but he only gets to issue orders to 2 units instead of 3. The only unique thing he has going on is being able to fight when killed, which you kinda want to avoid on your warlord.

He’s not bad, just you should at least take one Maw-krusha first.

Orruk Warchanter

These guys are arguably underpriced for what they do. You can bring 2 or even 3 and get value out of them. They have 3 “Warbeats” which are like prayers but don’t carry a risk of hurting themselves, and Violent Fury which is a free +1 damage to a unit within 15″. You can’t stack the damage bonus, of course, but the bonus is incredible on just about anything, especially a Warboss.

All 3 beats are exceedingly good, and you can’t go wrong with any of them. Fix em’ Beat is basically an auto take if you have a Maw-krusha, as it gives a route to healing even when stuck in combat. Get em’ Beat should be your second choice, as it gives a 3D6 charge for the turn. Combined with your bonuses and rerolls you can hit a target from exceedingly far away with your Warboss. Finally, Killa Beat is fine, +1 to hit against a single target is economical to save yourself some command points, but +1s to hit are also quite common as opposed to the other options.

They are exceedingly delicate and will likely die if they’re looked at funny, so keep them as far back as their buff range will allow and watch out for any teleports or deep strikes.

Orruk Weirdnob Shaman

Your one built in caster, you might want to try to get around this by giving another hero Arcane Tome. The only thing he has going for him is he can cast the Green Puke spell for free when within range of 10 or more models. Not a great spell, has a variable range and hits everything within 3″ of a point for D3 mortals. About the only advantage is he is your cheapest hero, so if you can fit him in and would rather take a different artefact on your war boss, he’s still fine to take.

Battleline

You have 2 battleline, but can also make your other non-Underworlds Warband unit Battleline in Bloodtoofs. If you’re not just going to spam pigs in Bloodtoof, both infantry are actually quite good and you can have a healthy mix of both.

Orruk Ardboys

Your cheap infantry, 85 points for 5 models is pretty good for Orruks. Additionally, theyre the tankier of the two, 2 in 5 models can take shields to get a 6+ ward (and naturally you should allocate all your wounds to them first) and they can rally back on a 4+ when within 12″ of a friendly warchanter. Together this means they stay around much longer than they have any right to.

The only drawback is their weapons are garbage. 4+/3+ with no rend, but you at least get a lot of them at 3 per model These guys aren’t meant to clear out the enemy, they stay on a point and hold it to the last Orruk.

Orruk Brutes

These are the more offensive choice. You can either take the Brute Choppas for 4 attacks but -1 rend, or Jagged Gore-hackas for 3 attacks but -2 rend. Take the Gore-hackas, neither is bad but you want that extra rend. Take all the special weapons you can.

They also have abilities to deal with 1 wound infantry and 4 wound infantry (or bigger). You Messin’? forces 1 wound infantry within 3″ to not count for capturing objectives. Excellent for countering Expert Conquerers in the current meta game (especially if they are their own Expert Conquerers). Duff Up Da Big Thing grants +1 to hit on models with 4 wounds or more. A nice little bonus that makes those 4+ to hit special weapons sting less.

This does mean they’re pretty mediocre against things with 2-3 wounds, not quite damaging enough nor can they mess with their capturing, so choose your targets carefully.

Other

Ironskulls Boys

Worse Ardboyz, they don’t get the better rally back (one of their best traits) and only get 4 models instead of 5. The only benefit is their leader gets a 5+ ward while the rest get a 6+ ward, so it’s a little tougher but not by enough to matter.

Morgok’s Krushas

Basically just worse brutes. They get Duff up Da Big Thing but not You Messin?. They do have a unique ability to get +1 to wound for the rest of the game if they kill a monster which uh, sorry looking at these guy’s stat profile and that probably isn’t happening. You can take 5 Ardboys for 5 points less.

Orruk Gore-Gruntas

Battleline in Bloodtoofs. After their buff shortly after the book release, these guys became the defacto take. On their own these guys are just a really punchy unit Mortal wounds on the charge and Rend -2 attacks (always take Gore-hackas). What sets them apart is when combined with all the other orruk buffs like free moves, bonuses to charge and extra damage from Violent Fury they move so fast and can get across the table in a turn no problem. They can clear out screens and then charge into their intended target pretty reliably. The cherry on top is being 5 wounds easy, so a basic unit of 3 can outpace even a Monster holding down an objective. Just a great unit, about the only downside at this point is they’re not Galetian Veterans, but that doesn’t matter if the enemy is dead.

Allies

Kragnos

Kragnos isn’t quite as valuable as he is in Kruleboyz or Bonesplitterz, mostly because you already have a Monster Hero that hits like a truck, and your stuff costs more which means you don’t have as much wiggle room to cram him in. Ever since he got the buff he’s not awful and you can have some fun cramming him in.

Gloomspite Gitz

Gitz don’t have a lot to offer you. Gitz have 2 things to offer you: Solid casters and cheap bodies. You don’t need a cheap caster, you got one. If you want cheap bodies, go Big Waaagh! And add Bonesplitterz who can actually benefit from Battle Traits. Skip these guys.

List Building

You got a question for yourself, 1 Maw-krusha or 2? Once you start there we can break down the rest.

James Marriott’s 7th Place Boise Cup List

James's List - Click to Expand

A recent event at the end of July, this went 4-1 at the Boise Cup. If you’d rather have a mixed force of things, this is pretty close to what it’s going to look like. Warboss charges in with the Destroyer to clear out the biggest thing on the board, the Gore-gruntas are the vanguard to clear out infantry while Brutes comes in shortly after to clean up. The shaman can cast Great Hand of Gork to move those Brutes in closer as needed, or to swipe up any neglected objectives.

Jiwan Noah Singh’s 4th Place LVO List

Noah's List - Click to Expand

This list ended up going 5-0 at LVO and ending in fourth place. The good stuff, 2 Maw-crushas, 2 Warchanters, one Shaman and as many pigs as you can fit. Put Violent Fury on your units, and use Mighty Destroyers to get in there and clean house. There isn’t much else to say, Ironjawz are a simple but effective force.

Since this event happened with last season’s GHB, we can drop Hunters of the Heartland and probably put them in Bounty Hunters instead, to maximize extra damage against infantry.

Conclusion

Ironjawz are a simple army. They can take a bit to master, to remember all their buffs, but as an army with few unit choices but almost no bad choices in the bunch that all synergize together really well, they are an effective army both for learning the game and succeeding at top tables at events. Cast your buffs and charge the enemy, leaving nothing left standing in your wake.