by Peter Atkinson

I must admit – when those rumours swept through all the WhatsApps and group chats about a month ago, I assumed it was bullshit, because GW wouldn’t come out with a name as crap as Trugg the Trogg.  And yet here we are – the rumours were entirely vindicated.

We’ve got a massive range refresh for Ironjawz plus some other Destro goodies besides – and all images (other than the cover image) are obviously credit to GW. I’ve saved (what I consider) the best till last, so are you ready to step through the green door?  Let’s go.

What we’ll be doing today

We’re going to be looking at this from a couple of different angles:

• What we think of the minis
• What we know about the rules so far
• Some fun speculation on what they might do in game

Bear in mind that unlike most other content creators, we don’t accept freebies: we get nothing from GW, and we’ve turned down loads of free review items from various companies over the years.  So if we do fangirl out and say we love something, we’re not just pontificating from behind a pile of free plastic.  If we buy this stuff, we’ll be buying it ourselves with our hard earned money, just like everyone else.

Trugg the Trogg

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/08/31/nova-previews-trugg-the-troggoth-king/

Hoo boy, he’s a big un.  The Troggboss (as cool as he was) came in disappointingly small when he hit the tables, so it’s cool to see a true behemoth of Troggdom at last.  That looks like a Kragnos / VLoZD sized base to my naked eye (one down from the Maw Krusha and A-Rok) so it’s shaping up to be a real centrepiece model.  My current thoughts are that he’s cool, but I’ll probably save myself some money by rebasing the Troggoth Hag up onto some basing materials and a bigger base. 

I’ve been looking for something to do with her since GW silently deleted her from the game in an FAQ, and she’s really too big to fit on a Troggboss base, so this could be just the ticket.

In terms of rules, they mentioned that he hates magic – and Troggs have historically had an element of magical resistance, so look out for an ignores-spells ability from this guy.  GW famously mistakes “random” for “fun” with Destro models, and the livestream implied some sort of random effect from him banging his club around that they described as being “great fun in-game”, so let’s hope you’re not overpaying for something that’s useful one time in five. 

They did mention that he’s very tough to kill with extra regeneration, so that’s a big plus. 

Would I buy it?

It’s objectively a sweet mini, but I’m just not feeling this one. I’ll personally be skipping the purchase and using the previous centrepiece Troggoth model GW sold me instead.  It’ll be a well-deserved Day 1 purchase for a lot of people though, and I’m super keen to see what he does for the army.

Dawngbringers Book II

I’ll be honest, I skipped the first Dawnbringers book without a backwards glance.  This one does sound a bit more interesting, with all the focus on enhanced Destruction warscrolls but also the Matched Play Armies of Renown.  There are specialized forces for armies led by the big named characters:

• Trugg and his mates
• King Brodd and a bunch of Gargants
• A full pig army

There’s a lot of talk about Trugg and Brodd “leading” their own forces, but hopefully you can still nominate a generic Troggboss or Mega Gargant as your army’s General for the purposes of taking a Command Trait – in much the same way that Morathi is always happy to take orders from some 110-point shitkicker, to give the army a 4+ Rally.

Would I buy it?

I’ll reserve judgment until I see the full contents, but Path to Glory stuff doesn’t interest me in the slightest.  This book does at least have me very interested, so it’s already well ahead of the Broken Realms series.

Zoggrokk Anvilsmasha

Man, how cool is that?  I love the glowing metal, hot from the forge, and I reckon that’s the one I’ll need to equip on the mini just because it looks amazing.  What’s interesting is that he’s a named character with two weapons choices: usually named characters come with whatever they have, because that’s kind of the point of being a named character.  Weapons choices are usually for the generic heroes, or indeed to distinguish between named and generic versions.  But anyway.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/08/31/nova-open-previews-an-avalanche-of-ironjawz/

He’s described as mainly being there to buff other Ironjawz.  I’d have thought that logically a smith would forge stronger armour and increase their armour save, but there was no mention of that, and instead the chatter on the WarCom article is more about making them fight harder.  Keener weapons with extra rend, perhaps?

The tongs option is there to amplify his buff potential, whereas the big weapon option reads like it messes with Wards. In the video they talked vaguely about having to roll high and then breaking the ward for the whole game (rather than just outright ignoring wards with your own attacks).  Maybe you need a wound roll of 6 or something to permanently remove an enemy unit’s ward? 

I guess the idea is that this guy strips the ward and then the Brutes go to town, but how useful that is really does depend on how hard it is to trigger.  I’m nervous but let’s see the full details.

Would I buy it?

Personally, I’m probably going to convert one up, but this will definitely sell by the truckload on the back of the Anvil Squig alone.  Keen to see the rules because buffing heroes could be anything.

Brute Ragerz

From what I can gather, the fluff behind these guys is that they’re Brutes who are super angry about years of having shit rules, so they get run and charge.  GW have long struggled to differentiate Brutes from Faster Brutes on Pigs, with actual Brutes always ending up just being slower and therefore worse.  Then you got the Underworlds Warband which was also just Brutes, but only 3 of them.  So hopefully there’s a bigger reason for these guys to exist than just having run and charge.

Would I buy it?

The minis are dope so they’re well worthy of a place in any Destro collection, but for me it depends entirely on the warscroll.  It’ll need to have a lot more going on than Three Angry Brutes with run and charge.  If they end up being super competitive, I’ll be all in, but otherwise I’ll save my money for the time being. 

Weirdbrute Wrekkaz

Second build from the same kit, these guys are a bit more unique and differentiated.  Will there be rules for the green bile these guys apparently vomit, as a short-range (9”) MW shooting attack maybe?  The talk on the stream was of them being anti-horde with a high volume of attacks, and potentially even more attacks if you roll well (exploding 6s maybe?).  The trouble there is that you have a decent volume of attacks from plenty of other units, and blasting through blocks of low-armour save troops isn’t your main challenge for Ironjawz.

Would I buy it?

I can imagine them being a proper blender against horde units; but the idea of anti-horde Brutes doesn’t get me excited, no.  I just remain to be convinced that that’s what Ironjawz needs the most to help them win more games.

There’s loads of cool stuff that these guys could do, so let’s hope they’re more exciting than they sound so far.  Happy to have my wallet prised open if they’ve been undersold on the cool and unique tech they’re packing.

Ardboys

Fucking BANG! They have smashed it with these guys.  The aesthetic is just perfect, bringing together call-back design elements of classic Orruks, but modernized and blended with the modern Ironjawz look. One really neat touch is the semi-circular rim above and behind their neck, just like the Brutes and Megabosses have.  Pure art.

Rules wise it sounds like quite the overhaul too.  They’re pictured with spears that have 2” reach written all over them – essential for blocks of troops on 32mm bases – and the shields are spiky, which might mean that unmodified save rolls of 6 bounce back a mortal wound onto the attacking unit in combat. 

And best of all….3+ armour save, baby!  Now you’re talking – proper objective holders.  Very, very happy with these fellas.

Would I buy it?

I already own a whole bunch of Ardboys, and I’ve always been a great believer that those minis are way better with a head swap.  It’s the cartoon-huge helmets that look stupid.  I’d love to replace the whole collection overnight, and if you’re in a position to do so (or just starting out) I envy you. 

For me it’ll probably be a matter of raiding the bitz box to kitbash some Bonesplitterz spears in amongst the weapons on display, and then probably a box of these guys will go right at the top of the Christmas list to sprinkle in amongst the collection. Owning 10 or 20 would be great to mix in amongst the existing models and the new uns would also get priority for making it to the tabletop when I’m running limited numbers.

The fact that I’m going to pick up some of these, despite having a limited budget and already owning a bunch of old Ardboys, speaks volumes. They really are that good – a true artistic triumph.

The elephant-pig in the room

We’ve had a couple of other models revealed recently that weren’t on display today:

• Big Pig.  This is the one we’re all waiting for.  This is the one that’s a Day 1 purchase for me, regardless of rules.  This is the one I’m saving my pennies for.  Sublime.
• Ardboy Boss.  These kinds of little foot heroes have a recent history of being OP on launch then getting a big points hike, so I’ll be working with what I’ve already got here and converting one up.  I can’t wait to see how he combos with the new Ardboys though.

Blue Sky Wish: Brute Buff

I mentioned earlier that Brutes have always struggled to provide a reason to be taken over pigs, and yet GW already nailed it years ago: the You Messin’ warscroll ability switches off objective control for 1-wound models, and this was a true work of genius.  Thematic, cool and unique – it was a great idea, but just underdone.

By making it enemy models within 3” instead of enemy units they doomed it from the outset.  It’s too easy to remove casualties and make the rule completely meaningless.  Let’s cut loose a little, and either make it a much bigger “models-within” bubble (6″ maybe), or just keep it simple and make it units within 3”.  Either way, the answer to the Brute conundrum is right in front of you, just let go of the shackles.  It’s time.

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So there ya go! What are you most exctited about? For me it’s the Ardboys, and I really didn’t expect it to be them – they are amazing. I reckon Trugg will be very popular too, but I’m less keen on him than most people seem to be. Maybe it’ll grab me more in person but I’m not buzzing on it right now.

Rules-wise it’s really a watching brief, but again it’s the Ardboys that have me most excited, and the Dawnbringers Armies of Renown rules that have me most intrigued. Let me know what you reckon these guys might do on the tabletop: it’s all reckless speculation, and I fuggin love it!

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