by Joel Graham and Peter Atkinson

Pete: Joel is an absolute legend of Australian wargaming. Every time he turns up to an event he’s the alpha beast in the room, and it’s vanishingly rare that he doesn’t 5-0. Motherfucker has knocked me over on Table 1, Round 5 on multiple occasions but I still love him.

Big Waaagh has been getting a lot of hype over the last couple of months without really racking up many notable 5-0s. In fairness they did have some pretty fucking busted armies to get past. Well cometh the hour, cometh the Megaboss and Joel swept the board at the 60-player A Score to Settle event in Melbourne last weekend ahead of a stacked field.

We’re debuting a new format here: Six Questions, where instead of rattling through a whole weekend and talking about every game sequentially, we punch straight through the armour save and get to the heart of the matter. What were the key list choices, what worked, what didn’t and what’s next? I’m really excited to expand this format by chatting with a whole bunch of event winners and the brains behind interesting 4-1 lists too, and who better to kick it off than the fucking GOAT?

Over to you, Joel.

1) Your Battleline was 3x Ardboys. Without doing a full list, what will be the three Battleline units in your next Big Waaagh army?

The obvious answer is Brutes, but I am very intrigued by the new hero pig as general and opening up two of the non-hero versions for Battleline, with a third slot filled with brutes. This would require a whole list redesign but would also open up other possibilities I want to play with, like the Gnashtoof. Now just to sell myself so I can afford them! Haha.

2) Did you ever need to fight with Gobsprakk at all? 

I would need to say yes in a roundabout way. The opening battle tactic play for the majority of my opponents was Magical Dominance, so for me it was worth the sacrifice of putting Gobby in a vulnerable position to shut down said tactic. This did leave him vulnerable at times. He is also no schmuck in combat especially with mortals, so there were several times that I sent him in to polish off a low health unit.

Literally every game when they sent good shit after Gobby, I was thinking of this meme in my head.

3) Was the Swampcalla able to strip a key ward with Nasty Hex at any point?

It was attempted half a dozen times but was stopped by bad rolls or opponent Primals every time. Apparently it’s a good spell.

4) What were you using Supa Sneaky for? I haven’t seen many people taking that.

I think its the best command trait for orcs period and worth small sacrifices elsewhere to take. What this allowed me to do was redeploy Gobby within 30″ of all opponent wizards, preventing the turn 1 tactic and making my opponents reconsider the turn choice when they had it, after they had already deployed in a certain way with that decision made. Since my list also had 6 Boltboyz I had the flexibility to use it on them too (and sometimes just the threat of this as a possibility is enough to scare opponents).

5) Every time I show someone my BW lists, they seem to think I should be running Moonclan Stabbas ahead of Shootas. What made you take Shootas? 

Stabbas in 40 blocks in Gitz, Shootas every other time:

• Stabbas don’t really do damage
• The +1 save is a minor difference when it’s that bad anyway
• The Shootas are still -1 to hit

39 shots at 4s and 5s (and fairly often All Out Attacked too) surprises a bunch of people, especially the 20″ range. It’s almost the perfect amount of damage to ping off a support hero, and a small swing of dice variability in your favour all but makes it a certainty.

I would argue the Shootas were the MVP of my list over the weekend. They fill a critically important role in Big Waaagh lists that nothing else can, and they are cheap as all getout. For example, Kieran (Skaven) who finished tied for 3rd played against another Big Waaagh list earlier in the event. He was able to alpha this list with the Masterclan ability and win the game turn 1. My screen of 20 Shootas prevented this from being possible – not bad for 120 points.

6) Which of the new Ironjawz warscrolls are you most keen for?

Ragerz are the obvious standout, but I’m no Mark Nodge that can drop big bags of dosh on new meta armies, so that’s not an option for me.

3 big pigs in Big Waaagh has me really intrigued but it’s the type of list that needs testing before you’ll know if it works. The new Ardboyz warscroll is chef’s kiss, I’ll be all over them when they get the 40 point drop they need.

Credit for the cover image to Games Workshop

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