As I wrote previously I knew I was playing Destruction and that I would have the Maw Crusher in my list the next problem was what to take with it I started to speaking to some of the more experience players about what was important to look out for and which units are the best currently so I knew how to judge the units I liked the look of.

I was advised to consider when picking any unit how many wounds do I get for my points with 100 for 10 wounds being about average. Wounds and Damage are properly the best two stats in the game right now with rolling to hit and rolling to wound commonly a fixed stat on your opponents own Warscroll not being able to stack a toughness or a armour like stat, no hiding in cover to reduce the to hit rolls so making sure you have plenty of wound is one thing you can do to increase your armies resilience.

nice cover pal still hit and wound you on 4+

Now with destruction there are two clear leaders in this category Gitmob Grots and Savage Orrucks both give you 20 wounds for 100 points with all the modern Orrock models (Ironjawz, Bonesplitters) having 2 wounds a model over the older Orcs having 1 I think this really shows that wounds is stat to represent toughness and resilience. Problem with this is I don't like the Gitmob Grots models at all to dated for me and although the Bonespllitters have some amazing models I have had and painted a large army of these in the past and don't fancy doing another one. 

Please say you agree! those Gitmob heads omg...

This led me onto the other Grots, Moonclan they are 20 wounds for 120 points and are no were near as effective in shooting as the Gitmob Grots but have some interesting upsides with nets, lots of banners, gongs, more effective in combat and have Fanatics. Always liked the Moonclan and have previously only had a Night Goblin unit or two in my larger Orc and Goblin armies so was up for getting a solid 80 or so painted up. 

The grind is real

After picking a Maw Crusher, 80 Moonclan Grots with bows with a selection of Fanatics and Shamans meant my battleline was sorted along 2 heroes and a behemoth. I knew from experience that just taking one large monster in any game was a recipe for disaster even if your opponents army is not geared up to deal with behemoths whatever random unit they may have that is will deal with it or they can just control it denying the board etc and prevent it being effective. 2 Maw Crushers was the first choice for me just so I can do a red and green paint job but spending over 1000 points on 2 models did not sit well with me the next obvious choice was  the Mangler Squigs but just to glass cannon for me. I finally decided that I needed to move away from what most of us will be used to just seeing Orc and Goblins as a army and look at it as all of Destruction. So I wanting a behemoth and only having 2 heroes in my army which by this point I had learnt were important in the 3 Places of Power scenario I also had no powerful range units.

Obvious choice here was the Beastclaw Raiders Thundertusk its behemoth got a crazy shooting attack (2+ to hit doing 6 mortal wounds at full strength) and if I but a Huskard on the back I get a hero also so I ordered 2 of these and 2000points was complete. 

These guys bring the pain!

Leaders
Moonclan Grot Shaman (60)
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (520)
- General
- Trait: Ravager
- Artefact: Battle Brew
Huskard on Thundertusk (340)
Huskard on Thundertusk (340)

Units
Moonclan Grots x 40 (240)
Moonclan Grots x 20 (120)
Moonclan Grots x 20 (120)
Grot Fanatics x 2 (60)
Grot Fanatics x 2 (60)
Grot Fanatics x 2 (60)
Grot Fanatics x 2 (60)

Behemoths

War Machines

Batallions

Total: 1980/2000

Always difficult to pick my army for any Games Workshop game being something I have loved since I was 10 years old whilst knowing I like to play a mix of competitive and narrative games I often get stuck in a middle ground with the inclusion of the Thundertusks I have really leaned to the more competitive side of things with my first list but cant wait to get some more options I love the Fellwater Troll models and the IronJawz Boar Boyz so look forward to painting some of them along with Squigs to really fill out my Moonclan force.

 Next blog painting and modelling my army.

A four-page rulebook, bonuses to your roll if you have a moustache, no points values, all the lore that many of us have grown up with gone. Even as a lifetime Games Workshop fan (and ex GW staffer), I was very skeptical of Games Workshop's Age of Sigmar (which will now be referred to as AoS) when it was released, and for a long time afterwards.

The development that was apparent in the build up to the release of the Generals Handbook, which would bring points values back to the game, had really sparked my interest. Knowing that during this development Games Workshop had been talking to some of the leading independent tournament organisers in the country (who's independent points systems were being used already by our locals) allowed me to hope that a return to organised play, community involvement and maybe even an attempt at balance was on the cards.

Points, coverage and and events GW doing good!

Since I decided that I was going to take the plunge into AoS, I have not been disappointed. Tournaments at Warhammer World with modern event coverage, no huge balance issues so far, and most of all a huge boom in the number of people playing - clearly I'm not the only one who's excited! The only issue I had was what army I was going to play...

One thing that has never been in doubt since AoS launched was how good the new models are! Stormcast, Fyreslayers and huge monsters of all varieties turned my head but one model really nailed it for me and ultimately was what made my choice for me; the Ironjawz Maw-Krusha. Ever since we got them in stock at JustPlay I'd been eyeing it on the shelf, so that was me playing Destruction!

Just look at all these wonderful monsters!

With that decided, please join me for my upcoming blog series on AoS both friendly and competitive! In the next article I'll be talking about my first army list, what units I selected and how/why I made that choice.

Ritchie