Interview by Peter Atkinson

Chris Riley is a long-term Bonesplitterz aficionado, and he’s been smashing it with this pig-heavy list. A 19-game winning streak incorporated a 3-0 RTT result and culminated in a powerful 4-1 result at the Warhammer World AOS GT, Chris’s only defeat being a Table 1, Round 5 loss to World Champion Nicolas Tassone. It’s a really cool build, so let’s catch up with Chris on how the army works, how he played it and the Destro faction he’d love to see next.

Ready? Let’s go!

HOGS OF WAAAGH!!! 2000/2000 pts
—–
Orruk Warclans | Bonesplitterz | Kop Rukk
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of the Savage Beast
Manifestation Lore – Forbidden Power
—–
General’s Regiment
Kragnos, the End of Empires (580)
• General
Savage Boarboys (280)
• Reinforced
—
Regiment 1
Wurrgog Prophet (160)
• Glowin’ Tattooz
• One Wiv Da Beast
Savage Boarboys (280)
• Reinforced
Savage Boarboys (140)
Savage Boarboys (140)
—–
Regiments of Renown
Da Hurtlin’ Hogz (420)
Maw-grunta Gougers
Tuskboss on Maw-grunta

So how does the army work?

I guess the key points are the jank:

1. Kragnos benefits from both Kop Rukk and Monster Hunters (rules screenshotted below)
2. Glowy Green Frenzy is able to dish out extra rend to friendly units. In this case that includes Da Hurtling Hogs Regiment of Renown, which are great targets!
3. Forbidden Power is great to zip a Big Pig / Kragnos around:
   • Kraggy helps you stick that 9″ charge out of teleport by rolling 3d6”
   • The Wurrgog gets Lauchon to keep up and laser eye stuff
   • “One Wiv da Beast” lets him auto-cast Bridge / Horroghast / Shards
4. The Boarboyz can be a damage dealer but are usually played as a wound-dense screen that can Power Through out of almost anything, and nab points unexpectedly

The Hurtling Hogs are great in this list too. At 420 points they’re bringing a source of Strike Last, you’re saving 50 points off their Ironjawz values and effectively getting a Tuskboss for the price of a second Gouger.

Glowy Green Tusks is amazing on their Tusk attacks when you’re at full Momentum – they just shred almost everything they touch…. Provided they actually hit 😂

I’ve been saying for a while that Forbidden Power is a great skill indicator. Any time I see an opponent rocking the FP, I know they really know their shit and I’m in for a tough game.

Forbidden Power I’m thoroughly convinced is the best spell lore – and this list makes good use out of everything:

• The Bridge works to pull something out of combat, so it’s like a pseudo-fallback and charge
• The Boat helps get the Gog out of a sticky situation
• The Horrorghast switches off commands, which can be as good as +1 rend if your opponent was counting on All Out Defence
• The Shards give you a little bit of board and movement control

Here’s a funny example: in Game 2, my opponent was playing Idoneth Deepkin. He put everything in deepstike apart from the Arkhelian King and three sharks:

By Turn 2 I had near-total board screening coverage with pigs. He ain’t landing anywhere useful 😂

Do you have any cool stories about hitting a charge off a Teleport (using the 3D6)?

Best example of this was my game 4 vs Ironjawz – the list was a similar vein to mine – three big monsters (in my opponent’s case, two Tuskbosses and a Gouger) with the rest of the army filled out with smaller pigs (Gore Gruntas).  These types of games are very much a case of either who blinks first or who leaves a chink in their armour. 

My opponent had deployed as far back as he could to avoid a full yeet from my army.  Out-dropping me, he had elected to go second and cagily moved up.  My opponent won the priority going into Round 2. Again he wanted me to go first at which point I had noticed his failure to screen his Maw Gruntas well enough.

Now I’m not usually in the habit of yeeting Kraggy out on his own, but the opportunity here was too good to pass up…

The Ironjawz list had no Wizard or other abilities to stop a cast which allowed me to make use of “One Wiv da Beast” to auto cast the Soulscream Bridge. With some pedantic measuring I was able to work out the perfect spot to drop the Bridge and Kraggy. He duly nailed a 14” charge, wiping one of my opponent’s Tuskbosses on impact, and then the Gouger in the following melee!

Ha! Cop that. And from Mork’s perspective, do you have any examples of using the Bridge as an awkward lump of plastic to make your opponent’s life difficult?

In my game 2 vs Idoneth Deepkin, my opponent had two thirds of his army travelling the Ethersea. 

At the top of turn two, I continued my turn one play of spreading out my Boarboyz in order to reduce my opponent’s options for to set up his units… at this point I had zoned out approximately two thirds of the board. 

In my opponent’s second turn, he was measuring space and weighing up options for battle tactics, and he had identified a space in the rear of my lines.  I hit a cheeky Magical Intervention with the Wurrgog and I managed to drop down both parts of the Bridge to take up space and block it out as a landing point for any of his nasties waiting for me in reserve. 

This play forced my opponent to set up in a more mid board position where I had screens set up supported by Kragnos and the Big Pigs. In this photo you can see the Bridge on the bottom right corner, and his only remaining landing zone on the left:

Nice work. Any times the Wurggog mask shooting came in clutch?

In game 1 he had a great combo with Horrorghast and its Harbinger of Horror ability, contributing to the number of models slain in a unit in the shooting phase and therefore denying a troublesome unit of Rat Ogres the use of commands:

Game 4 my Wurrgog was on fire 🔥 I blasted his souped up laser-eyes into some Gore-Gruntas on an objective – he managed to hit and wound with all twelve shots (unheard of!), 7 saves were unfortunately made but the remaining 5x D3 damage rolls resulted in the dice all coming sunny-side up for a straight 15 damage, wiping the unit. First time I think I’ve seen him solo kill a unit in 4th edition!

EPIC! And were there any times you screwed people over with the Boarboys’ ability to Power Through unexpectedly?

Haha! Yes! Twice during the event I managed this. Before every game I make a point of being really open and clear that this is a “God-mode” Power Through:

Game 2 I had one Boarboy from one of my smaller units with one wound remaining (after having spent that combat phase with an Arkhelian Allopex)… he then Powered Through and zipped out of there, to become a nuisance and help to push that anti-deepstrike screen even further up.

Game 4 my opponent used a unit of Goregruntas to pull a unit of 10 Boarboyz into combat, thinking it would tie them up in the following turn, only to have them Power Through and outnumber my opponent’s units on a lightly-held objective, denying him the Hold Two / Hold More primaries!

Love your work. Now Kraggy and the Big Pigs are 1000 points on the nose between them. How do you feel about calling it a Bonesplitterz army when fully half your points went into Not Savage Orruks?

I did laugh to myself when I had the realisation it was only 1000points of Splitterz. 

It’s funny, because the list was first drafted without any real thought going into it other than “I want to run Da Hurtling Hogs RoR”. For me it’s all about the pigs… 

The fact I can get some Big Pigs on the table amongst the Boarboyz is something I am stoked about. 

With the mix of Orruk flavours, it helps to think of it as “Pig WAAAGH!!!” 😂

I have resisted Kragnos for so long this edition I figured it was time to give him a run finally.  Kragnos wouldn’t get half the benefits and synergies he does in other Destruction armies as he does with Bonesplitterz, and I had to give him a try before the faction dies.

Well, speaking of that. What’s next for your Bonesplitterz after the curtain comes down?

I have several armies to fall back on once Da Boyz finally bite the dust. I’m a Destruction lad at heart so will likely rotate between Ogors, Ironjawz and Gloomspite Gitz from June until I settle again on a main.

If I’m wishlisting, I would love to see a “Drogrukh” faction fleshed out for Destruction to give Krag-daddy something more aesthetically similar to lead. 

I would love to imagine this is the reason why both Beasts of Chaos and Bonesplitterz have been dropped to clear design space for a bunch of ancient Monster-hunting, Draconith-hating Centaurs making the realms quake!

Almost certainly got my head in the clouds on that one, but it would be badass to play.

I’ll wrap it up with a shout-out to my teams “The Hogs of WAAAGH!!!” & “Team Potato”, and my local club The Outriders: MK.

Thanks for the interview mate. Come on you Boyz in Green!

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