AoS 3.0 GHB2021 Orruk Warclans First Impressions

 Written by Benjamin Lolmaugh

OVERVIEW:

This quick blog post is based on preview copy of the GHB2021 that was found on Facehammer's Youtube channel. The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoGwGjNBBwk . This does not discuss the information actually in the book, only the points will be discussed. If you would like me to right a more bird's eye view of the state of Orruk Warclans as of GHB2021, let me know and I'll see if I am able to muster up the motivation. ADHD is a bitch.  

First, we expected increases, so that will be mentioned in passing and if it can be justified. Second, minimum unit sizes and reinforcement points are a thing now. This is a HUGE problem for Orruk Warclans players who usually play a horde army. You basically pay 2 prices for your large units, once in points and again in reinforcement points. It doesn't feel good. Hopefully there will be some ways to increase the reinforcement limits for horde armies in the future. As of this writing I was unable to find anything to increase the reinforcement limits using the universal battalions. 

THE GOOD:

As a rule, I try to be optimistic It just doesn't feel good to be negative or be around people who are negative, so let's see if we can see some good in this. First, we expected increases, so that will be mentioned in passing.  

ARDBOYS down from 100 to 95. So Ardboys are a mixed bag but generally in Good shape. The minimum unit size stayed at 5. Which will eat up a lot of reinforcement points to get to the horde levels we had before. Running 60+ Ardboys was easy and actually really fun to do. 40 Ardboys are still gonna run you 760 pts and use all of your reinforcement points, but HEY, who cares?! The Ardboys also lost the conditional size requirement to be considered a BATTLELINE unit in Ironjawz and Big Waaagh armies. This makes Ardboys the cheapest way to fill out the BATTLELINE require for lists running only 285 pts. 

WARDOKK up from 80 to 85. This naked dancing orruk is still a great buff piece and an auto-including in all of my Bonesplitterz lists, usually 1 per block of Savage Orruks. Wardokks got off light here. They are easily worth 120 pts being both a PRIEST and a WIZARD. With Mystic Shield back to AoS 1.0 levels, this means Wardokks might make it into Big Waaagh lists for that easy cast. The lost of stacking save buffs is a little lame but it was gamey and a little weird to have a 3+ Save naked Savage Orruk running around. Being able to Banish endless spells or Invocations will be hella usefully for any list coming up against Khorne, Disciples of Tzeentch or Fyreslayers. 

KRAGNOS down from 760 to 695. Well that was quick! An almost 10% decrease is great. He is considered your general so he has extended range on command abilities and can keep getting those sweet sweet Command Points each turn. Will this make him more competitive? Probably not but compared to a Megaboss on Mawkrusha (495 vs 695) it definitely makes Kraggy more appealing, especially in Bonesplitterz lists where they generally lack mortal wounds and high Rend. His average damage output against a 4+ Save is 20.6! That's discounting any mortal wounds from Rampaging Destruction. Remember that Kragnos has access to both Their Finest Hour, Heroic Recovery (at Bravery 11), Titanic Duel and Stomp. 

THE EXPECTED:

WARCHANTER up from 110 to 120. With TOTEM able to extra the range of command abilities namely Mighty Destroyers this was expected. The Warchanter is probably the greatest buffer for any army for the points. Violent Frenzy IS JUST THAT GOOD! I'm sure this increase will not diminish out many Ironjawz or Big Waaagh players field. I'm still going to field 2 in a Ironjawz Da Choppaz list or 3 in my normal Big Waaagh list.

SAVAGE BOARBOY MANIAKS up from 140 to 150. 70 attacks. We had 70 attacks at 140 pts. Only 10 points feels like a light touch, but I'll take it. 

THE BAD:

SAVAGE ORRUKS up from 120 to 130 and no Horde Discount. This is TERRIBLE news for Bonesplitterz players like me who relied on our large sturdy block of Savage Orruks with stikkas to hold the objectives all game. No more stacking the +1 to Hit buffs mean that if Big Waaagh isn't changed, you won't be seeing Savage Orruks there either. Casting Kunnin' Bone Spirits or Brutal Beast Spirits now feel wasted in a Big Waaagh list. At least there are is one drop that loads of 20 orruk strong blocks of Savage Orruks can fit in and still be a one drop.

SAVAGE BOARBOYS up from 130 to 140. Well this came out of nowhere. Who is running Savage Boarboys so well that they need an increase? They honestly need to be 120-110 to work or getting the bonus for having 5 in the unit like Maniaks do. No clue why Boarboys got this slight nerf... this affects 0 people since everyone just runs Savage Boarboy Maniaks instead. CARRY ON!

ORRUK BRUTES up from 130 to 150. Ouch. That hurt! Why!? Were they a great buy at 130? Well yes they were. They were still struggling to get into lists for the more maneuverable Ardboys. This increase definitely won't help. They are still the most points efficient Orruk Warclans BATTLELINE unit we have. Brutes are going to be most effected by the unit coherency rule. If you run 10 Brutes they are definitely going to be armed with Jagged Gore-Hackas and walking in a phalanx formationn, no more lines of Brute Choppas. Just expect more of them on the table if you are building a Da Choppas list. 

AoS 3.0 has brought us Orruk Warclans players a lot of emotions, a lot of mixed emotions. But one really stands out and that's da feelin' of DA WAAAAAAGGGGHHH!

Orruk Warclans: Ardboyz GHB2019

Written by Benjamin Lolmaugh

The iron host, the horde, the green tide, the great green menace. When you think of orruks, you think of the unending tide of green skin, heaving muscles, barbaric rage surging across the landscape to burn and pillage everything they can touch. The pinnacle of Gorkamorka's fury is found in the Ardboyz. 

OVERVIEW:

The Ardboyz are the heart and soul of the Ironjawz, of the orruks and I would go even as far as saying as the whole Destruction allegiance.  Everything about the Ironjawz is concentrated into the Ardboyz. Tough and killy and just cunnin' enough to sucker punch the enemy when he's not lookin'. One of the best units in Ironjawz even among the star-studded list. Competitive in both Ironjawz exclusive lists and Big Waaagh lists. You'll ask me "Chaos Spawn, are you telling me that Ardboyz can do everything?" and that answer would be YES, yes they can. 

THE WARSCROLL:

As of General's Handbook 2019 these bad boys come in at 90 pts for 5. Only becoming Battleline for Ironjawz and Bonesplitterz in units sizes of 10 or more. That's perfectly fine. I take them in 10-15 and usually 40-60 in every list. Seriously. Unless it's a niche-list like a Gorefist, I take as many as I can. 

The Stat Wheel isn't impressive. Slow. Average save at a 4+, average wounds (2). Low Bravery (6). The attack profile is quite good for a cheap(ish) Battleline unit. Stuck on 32mm, and 1" Range weapons means you'll only ever get 1 rank into combat at a time. But that will be enough to grind through the opponent. 

The first hint of flavor we taste from the Ardboyz is that their unit composition is COMPLICATED. In the best circumstance of 10 Ardboyz you will have 1 Ardboy Boss, 1 Waaagh! Drummer, 1 Gorkamorka Banner Bearer, 1 Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer 4 Ardboyz with Orruk-forged Shields and 2 with regular Ardboy Choppas. 

 

The Ardboy Boss is the king among unit champions. Having 2 EXTRA attacks is phenomenal and multiplicative with the Violent Frenzy buff from the Warchanter. The Waaagh Drummer is another great addition the a normally slow unit by adding 2 to the charge rolls. In any army that loves to be stuck in combat, you'll have no problem getting your units of Ardboyz across the table to krump the enemy. The Gorkamorka Banner Bearer is a must-have, if you want to only include one banner in your units, take this one. Granting +2 Bravery is a god-send for this elite infantry unit. No longer in danger of losing models when one Ardboy falls means they will stick around until far longer. The Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer is a nice-to-have. Bravery in most armies is not even a thought, but when you start to do that damage, another model fleeing can make the difference between securing an objective or losing it. 

All of these extra components are worth it and are worth making sure you have the right bits in each unit. So be mindful of where each Ardboy is when you remove causalities or you might just screw yourself out of 2 points of Bravery or extra charge range.

The last ability on this lovely warscroll is the Orruk-forged Shield. Not as nice as many other shield abilities, but its better than nothing. From last edition, its more of a nerf. Each Ardboy could equip a shield instead of 2 out of 5 now. Keep in mind that this rule does not affect MORTAL WOUNDS, as wounds and mortal wounds are different. This is just effective enough to make yourself add shields onto your Ardboyz, but little enough to make you think you might be wasting your time. 

The Ardboyz are just cheap enough, just tough enough, just killy enough where you will feel confident throwing them at the enemy buffed or not. If they die, so what, it was a cheap unit and absorbed lots of damage. Maybe you threw Go On Ladz, Get Stuck In! or Killa Beat and a Violent Frenzy on a unit of 10. Well they can now reliably deal 16 wounds AFTER saving throws. 

One Ironjawz warclan really stand out for the Ardboyz-centric warboss. DA CHOPPAS. They have a fantastic relic to help buff those Bravery numbers and a Command Ability that makes Violent Frenzy affect D3 Ardboyz units instead of 1. 

Big Waaagh is also a great place for the Ardboy hordes. The large unit sizes and amount of boyz you can fit within 18" means that you can maximize on how many Waaagh points you can get each turn. Taking units of 10+ will allow you to claim them as Battleline and also gather more Waaagh points when you make those charge and activate in combat. Once you get to the hallowed level of 20 Waaagh Points, your Ardboyz are now on 2+/2+. A true threat. 

 

PROS & CONS:

+ Cheap

+ After Save

+ Buff Sponge

+ Cheap on eBay

- Love it or Hate it model

- Terrible to Paint

- Requires Buffs to really shine

Painting the hordes and hordes of Ardboyz is probably the worst part.

BATTALIONS:

Ironfist - which can fit 4 units of Ardboyz and 1 unit of either Goregruntas or Brutes and still be completely competitive. A free fight in the Hero phase or move, can help you screen an objective or slaughter those last few survivors to get to the next big fight.

Ardfist - made for those madladz like me who love hordes and hordes of Ardboyz. Allowing you to attempt to bring back units of slain Ardboyz on a 4+. You'll be taking Warchanters if you are taking Ardboyz anyways. Ardfist is particularly good in Big Waaagh since those new units are affected by Smash 'Em and Bash 'Em Waaagh abilities, making them immediate and dangerous threats on the table edges. 

Moggorz's Rekrootin' Krew - From the White Dwarf. Gives your Ardboys immunity to battleshock. Not too useful. Your Ardboyz are almost immune already considering the bravery buff, unit size buff, Rogue Idol buff and possible auto-pass with a CP. 

WRAP UP:

While needing a little love in the buff department, the Ardboyz can really do and be anything for the warboss who fields them. Always herded into battle by a Warchanter, they can take on anything. 'Ard as Nails and absolutely cunningly brutal. A true Testament of Gorkamorka's finest. 

GRADE: A