If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll note that Peter and I are big Destruction aficionados–we in fact connected I don’t even know how long ago now when I wrote up the original guide to playing Bonesplitterz shortly after AOS 3.0 launched. Green is best, after all.

However, the meta has shifted and changed since the original Orruk Warclans book released, and now a full four GHBs later we’ve seen our favorite green idiots get left behind competitively, with the following summarizing what’s happened to each of the individual Warclans in that time:

• Ironjawz hadn’t received any significant points increases or decreases in the last few years, as according to GW they’ve been at a perfectly competitive win rate for a long time, though that’s slipped recently;
• Bonesplitterz was BRIEFLY on top of the world–boy was I a proud papa–and then when they flew too close to the sun they got SMASHED with points increases across the only competitive units in the book, and the new GHB saw ZERO point changes for the naked lads;
• Kruleboyz have continously gotten both rules improvements and points drops, but even this isn’t enough to get the army to be competitive–and some of these point drops have gotten frankly insane (more on that later);

Which leaves Big WAAAGH, which is an amalgam of the three armies with extra rules sprinkled on top to make it work as a single force. There have been occasional spikes in its playability–having Galletian Champions that can’t be shot is pretty good–but for the most part has been a forgettable choice to bring to an event.

UNTIL NOW.

What’s Changed?

There are four very big reasons why Big WAAAGH is back on the menu, all coming from the new GHB and Battlescroll that were just released, and we’re going to get into each point in detail:

1. Brand new, very easy tactics
2. Impactful points dropped on key Kruleboyz and Ironjawz units
3. Coherency and Look-Out Sir! changes
4. Andtorian Locus rules

But first, a brief explainer on how Big WAAAGH functions.

How does Big WAAAGH Work?

The short answer is very well!

Essentially, you get access to the full Orruk Warclans roster, and can pick and choose artefacts, command traits, and spells from each Warclan as you add them to your army. In addition, you give up most of the battle traits of the three Warclans and get to keep the following from each:

• Kruleboyz units keep Venom Encrusted Weapons (mortals on 6s to hit);
• Ironjawz units keep Mighty Destroyers (command ability that lets an IJ unit make a hero phase move/charge/pile-in depending on how close it is to an enemy unit);
• Bonesplitterz units keep their 6+ ward;

All of which are pretty decent on their own, but the real sauce is in the WAAAGH points table:

Hooboy is that sweet. So how do you get WAAAGH points? A number of different ways:

You also get a heroic action appropriately named “Ere We Go, Ere We Go, Ere We Go!” that lets you roll a dice, and if you roll higher than the current battle round number, you get the current battle round number in points.

So if you go first, you’ve got a theoretical maximum of 10 WAAAGH points before charging and fighting is included you roll a 6 on the D6 and you’ve got at least one Warchanter and a Wurrgog Prophet on the table (because they’re always the first BONESPLITTERZ wizard on the team sheet). Since this is, y’know, an ORRUK army, you’ll be charging and fighting sooner rather than later, so getting to 20+ points by the top of Round 2 isn’t unheard of.

Which is all pretty good, right? But this GHB is really, REALLY big on good book tactics, which brings us to our first point about what’s making Big WAAAGH juiced up this season:

Big WAAAGH Tactics Are Easy and Plentiful

So we’re going to go ahead and talk about this, because it’s the biggest change to the army, and it’s the two new tactics off the presses from the Battlescroll:

Okay, so, Sneak Up is the easiest turn one (T1) tactic in the game. Hands down.

Yes. I know Kharadron Overlords can run up and shoot something. Yes, I know Sylvaneth can charge and then fade away. Big whoop–all that shit requires physically moving models and rolling dice after picking your tactic. With Sneak Up, you could deploy, say, Gobsprakk within 3″ of some terrain, start your turn, pick your tactic, and then immediately end your turn without doing anything else and score AT LEAST 2 points.

This GHB’s tactics are fucking ROUGH if you don’t have a good T1 book tactic. Some armies are really going to struggle on what to do the first turn, especially when priority is given away to you and if you deployed wrong you’re immediately in the hole.

Big WAAAGH though laughs at that–just make sure Gobsprakk or your Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast or whoever is just nearby some terrain at the end of your turn and you are golden.

The Ironjawz specific one is also pants-on-head stupid easy to accomplish, since Ironjawz units aren’t here to play fancy tactical maneuvers or figure out a hypotenuse, they’re here to SMASH AND BASH and there ain’t no better smashing nor bashing to be done than in the midboard on these missions.

So that’s two auto-score tactics, which complement some other very easy, very doable tactics from the book itself, which I’ve curated below in no-particular order:

• Wait For It, Ladz…: You can pick this battle tactic only if your army has at least 24 Waaagh! points. You complete this tactic if your army has at least 30 Waaagh! points at the end of this turn.
  • TIP: If you’re already at 30, you can just auto score it as long as you don’t declare a Waaagh that turn. You can also roll the d6 for your general’s Waaagh! points before or after you choose the tactic as well.
• Take Dat, Ya Suckers!: You can pick this battle tactic only if the model picked to be your general has the KRULEBOYZ keyword. You complete this tactic if the following 2 criteria are met:
  • At least 10 wounds or mortal wounds in any combination that were caused by friendly units are allocated to enemy models this turn.
  • Fewer than 10 wounds or mortal wounds in any combination that were caused by enemy units are allocated to friendly models this turn.
    • TIP: If you have a Wurrgog Prophet in your army (because why the hell wouldn’t you?) you can use his Wurrgog Mask (the care-bear stare!) first, and then pick the tactic–the wounds he causes to himself don’t count against the tactic since he is causing wounds to himself.
• Squish Da Puny Gitz: You can pick this battle tactic only if the model picked to be your general has the IRONJAWZ keyword and there is at least 1 enemy Battleline unit on the battlefield. You complete this tactic if there are no enemy Battleline units on the battlefield at the end of this turn.
  • TIP: This tactic rewards you for being aggressive. Be aggressive.

On top of all that is one of the better battletome Grand Strategies–and trust me, the rest in the book are just not good–is the appropriately named:

• Waaagh!: When the battle ends, you complete this strategy if the model picked to be your general or a friendly Battleline unit is wholly within enemy territory.

With several missions lining up with territories consisting of literally half the board, you more or less just need to not get tabled to score it. Thanks to the power of the Great Green Hand of Gork spell, you can pretty easily drop a unit of Ardboyz into a corner somewhere and get your tactic.

In essence, the army more or less has three slam dunk tactics and a pretty consistenly scored Grand Strategy, and can EASILY score most of the tactics in the new GHB. This makes the army a scoring machine since you can fit in more models than ever before thanks to:

Absolute Bargains on Important Kruleboyz and Ironjawz Units

GREEN IS BEST. Also, RIP Dobby (the Marshcrawla) for paying for the sins of Squig Herds.

Gobsprakk dropping 20 is by far the biggest change here, as we are officially in the Magic Meta, and Gobsprakk can do absolutely FILTHY things to a wizard stupid enough to be in unbinding range of him:

• If Gobsprakk unbinds a spell, the spellcaster takes d3 mortal wounds;
• If Gobsprakk unbinds a spell on a 10+, the spellcaster take d6 mortal wounds;
• Once per game, Gobsprakk can unbind 3d6 instead of 2d6–but remember, you can use Primal Dice from the new GHB to really wrack up the unbind rolls.

He also happens to know all the Kruleboyz spells, which are sweet given that he’s a two-cast wizard:

• Hero phase move a KRULEBOYZ MONSTER (himself usually);
• Pick a point within 24″ and everything within 6″ of that point loses an attack until your next herophase;
• Turn off a unit’s wards–get fucked Gotrek;
• Roll a dice for each model in an enemy unit, and for each 6 and any other rolls above the unit’s save characteristic that unit takes 1 mortal wound;

Also he moves 14″ base and and if he issues redeploy to a Kruleboyz unit you get to re-roll the dice. He’s FANTASTIC value in this meta, and his points drops opens all kinds of possibilities.

The other two really big points changes have to do with the the Killaboss on Gnashtoof and the Brutes. Let’s start with the Gnashtoof–can you believe this guy used to be 200 points WAY back in Dominion? Now for 120 points you get:

• 10″ of movement, which is made better with the Fast’Un Mount Trait which gives you a 1/game normal move in your hero phase;
• A base 3+ save;
• Eight 2 damage attacks, half of which benefit from Venom Encrusted Weapons and the other half benefit from rend -2.
• A great general candidate for the Kruleboyz Tactic described above AND scoring the often taken WAAAGH Grand Strategy
  • Have your general OR a battleline unit wholly within your opponent’s territory at the end of the game.

Such value. Speaking of value, Brutes continue to get cheaper each time the Battlescroll rolls around, and they’re quite a big deal since the objectives for most missions this GHB are dead center of the table with short deployment zones. Lots of opportunities to squeeze 10 Brutes in now, load ’em up with buffs and send them crashing into the opponent.

But what about those core rules changes? Do they help too?

Coherency and Look Out Sir! Changes Are a Very Big Deal

Let’s start with coherency changes.

Okay, big deal, right? Basically everything in this army comes in multiples of five so how does this help?

Boy oh boy am I excited to tell you now we’ve entered the era of Orruk Gore-Gunta conga-lines. With a fat 90x52mm base, a 1″ coherency, and a 3″ no-man’s land around each model you can string a unit of 6 out and block off a whopping 32″ of table–or you know, charge 32″ of table.

But it gets better than that! Now you can do some sick pile-in maneuvers previously impossible with the old coherency rules:

Just real disgusting shit. Get creative with it.

As for the new Look Out Sir!:

Stick your foot heroes (which you’ll have quite a few of) near your battleline and now they can’t be targeted outside 12″. Simply excellent. Hug those Ardboyz.

Speaking of foot heroes, especially of the spellcasting variety:

Being An Andtorian Locus Rules And So Does Primal Dice

At the start of every battle round, you can pick an Andtorian Locus (non-unique WIZARD 9 wounds or under) and give them an additional cast and unbind for that round. Three cast Wurrgogs or two cast Weirdnobz? Yes please.

On the latter it gets even better, because if you give a Weirdnob two spells to cast, and he knows two spells already then he can teleport himself around and give you a real opportunity to obliterate your opponent thanks to Primal Dice.

Yes, yes, Primal Dice is better for unbinding since there is zero risk to the unbinder. But when the cards are on the table and you enter risk-taking mode, the payoffs can be enormous. Take, for example, my buddy’s Frostlord who got into my backfield within range of Gobsprakk and my Weirdnob Shaman who had Merciless Blizzard (Casting Value 12, deal 4d6 mortal wounds to an enemy unit within 12″).

Gobbsprakk used the Nasty Hex spell he knows on the Frostlord to strip him of his wards, and then the Weirdnob proceeded to cast Merciless Blizzard with two 6’s from Primal Dice, causing it to super-cast and un-unbindable AND deal 15 mortal wounds to the Frostlord. I love it when a plan comes together.

Oh and one more point regarding Primal Dice. You know how the Warsong Revenant and Skragrott’s spells both got errata’d to referring only to the unmodified casting roll for their warscroll spells? The Wurrgog Prophet’s warscroll spell did not change.

Get Fisting.

Cool Things You Can Do In Big WAAAGH

Strap yourselves in, because the tricks you can do in Big WAAAGH are gross and plentiful:

1. Take a Kruleboyz General and give him the Supa Sneaky command trait, which lets you redeploy a Kruleboyz unit anywhere on the table after deployment. Is your opponent trying to hide their wizards so they can attempt Magical Dominance Turn 1? Just redeploy Gobsrakk into unbinding range.
2. If you use Mighty Destroyers in your hero phase to charge, say, a unit of Gore-Gruntas and their impact hits kill the charged unit, you can then auto-run them 15″ and because they’ve already charged earlier that turn, they can still pile-in.
3. Speaking of Gore-Gruntas, load them up with buffs in the hero phase (their mounts are GREAT targets for Hoarfrost), then teleport them 12.1″ away from an enemy unit with the Great Green Hand of Gork, then use Mighty Destroyers on them to move 9″ towards that enemy unit.
4. Similar trick for a Sludgeraker/Mirebrute/Gnashtoof Boss that has the Fast’Un mount trait–teleport them outside 9″ and walk right up to your opponent.
5. You can use the Wurrgog Prophet’s stare first to kill an enemy unit, then pick the Take Dat, Ya Suckers!, then use Heroic Recovery on him, and if you have a Warchanter with Fixin’ Beat you can heal him some more too!
6. There is nothing saying you can’t be an Andtorian Locus and still have a Mount – it’s based purely on wound count, so the humble Maniak Weirdnob slips right in. Having a Mount means he can take the Fast Un Mount Trait for a Hero Phase move and – can you see where this is going? – slide 12″ up the table before dropping Blizzard on a prime target. GW went to great efforts to stop you punting that spell through the Umbral Spellportals, so this guy having effectively 24″ is pretty naughty. He’s great on Fountains of Frost too, zipping around and capping objectives as 10 models.

List Building in Big WAAAGH

There are no hard and fast rules for list building in Big WAAAAGH, though you do end up having a fair bit of Hero Hammer going on because the heroes are just too good. The roster for BW is enormous, so for brevity’s sake we’re going to stick to the usual (and best) suspects here, broken down by Warclan:

• Kruleboyz
  • Gobsprakk: See Above;
  • Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast: He’s got a lot of wounds, good movement, is a MONSTER, and hits like a truck;
  • Killaboss on Gnashtoof: See Above;
  • Breakaboss on Mirebrute Troggoth: See the reasons for the Gnashtoof, just that he hits MUCH harder but is much slower–usually used as an assassin unit since you can give him the Fast’Un mount trait, teleport him with the Great Green Hand of Gork and then hero phase move into reliable charging distance;
  • Swampcalla Shaman: He’s cheap and the Kruleboyz spell lore is good;
  • Gutrippaz: A cheap block of 20 wounds that’s -1 to hit and can chip off mortal wounds in combat;
  • Hobgrots: They’re cheap and throw moderately effective grenades, and become battleline for each Gutrippaz unit you take;
  • Boltboyz: Still pretty good, but not being able to snipe off small heroes is a bummer now;
  • Beast-Skewer Killbow: It costs 80 points and does hilarious damage to Megas, what’s not to love?
• Ironjawz
  • Megaboss on Mawkrusha: It’s a pissed off Orruk riding a pissed off head of cabbage–big damage dealer and an absolute tank, but eats up a lot of points at 450
  • Megaboss on Foot: At 140 he’s a bargain if you want to issue Mighty Destroyers twice a turn;
  • Warchanter: All-star in BW, earning you Waaagh! points and making your IJ units hit like trucks and either handing out heals or 3d6 charges;
  • Weirdnob Shaman: At 90 points he is an absolute steal, being able to cast a teleporting spell that gets your slow movers right into the action;
  • Ardboyz: They’re 80 point battleline and with Hoarfrost and a Warchanter can punch WAY above their points;
  • Brutes: They bully 1 wound models, they hit harder vs models with 4 or more wounds, and are less than 10 points per wound;
  • Gore-Gruntas: Conga lines, fast speed, lots of attacks, lots of wounds–take them where you can, you won’t regret it;
  • Ironskull’s Boys: If you have a preponderance of points, and can slot them in, they’re a straight upgrade over regular Ardboyz.
• Bonesplitterz
  • Wurrgog Prophet: He’s a two cast wizard with the greatest warscroll ability in the game when you give him the Glowing Tattooz, which gives him a 4+ ward. Hit your opponents with it once and watch entire armies run in fear trying to get away from him.
  • Maniak Weirdnob: For Fast Un high jinks as described above.
  • Nothing else, sadly.

With all that said, here’s what I’m looking at right now for Big Waaagh:

We’ve got two monster heroes in Gobsprakk and the Sludgeraker with some cheeky redeployment shenanigans from the Supa Sneaky command trait, which let you threaten flanks pretty easily. Pair that with the raw bruising power of the Brutes and the Gore-Gruntas and you’ve got a good recipe for success. The cherry on top is the flexibility the foot heroes provide–extra damage on 3d6 charges from the Warchanters, teleports from the Weirdnob, and the mind-blowing power of a fully operational Wurrgog Prophet Death-laser.

Personally, I don’t think there’s really a wrong way to build a Big WAAAGH list since we’re in the Wild West right now. Want more Kruleboyz? Go ahead. Want more Bonesplitterz? I probably wouldn’t, but hey, the world’s your great big oyster right now, so Craic it open!

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