Heresy & Heroes

Having only just worked on a Greenskins list for 40k, it’s time to take the brand new Orruk Warclans battletome for a spin after Games Workshop very kindly sent me a copy. I’m not going to do any crazy challenges with this one, so we’re going for the old school rules here. We’re going to create a 2000 point list of fun things to paint, full of new models and it should be fun and even maybe effective to play with. If you’re like me and you’re not a fan of huge armies that take too long to paint, hopefully you can have some fun with this.

Now, when it comes to the Orruk Warclans armies, you have a choice to make before you start. There are four types of armies to choose from; Kruleboyz, Ironjawz, Bonesplitterz and The Big Waaagh! and the latter allows you to take units from all three of the other options. So I have a choice to make, but it’s pretty easy for me – it’s Big Waaagh! time, baby. Let’s run down the list, that I like to call ‘Fist Mouth’.

Leaders

The reason I am calling this army ‘Fist Mouth’ is due entirely to the two behemoth-borne leaders that will make this army particularly scary. First up, we have what I still regard to be one to the coolest models in the range, Gordrakk, The Fist of Gork. He remains an absolute combat monster with the destructive bulk of his Maw-krusha and all the attacks he comes with mean you can pretty much throw Gordrakk at whatever you don’t like and he will, at the very least, cause mayhem. But he won’t be alone because we’re also taking Gobsprakk, the Mouth of Mork. While not as fighty as Gordrakk, this swamp-dwelling, vulcha-riding wizard is a great backup. What’s more, with his nasty ability when it comes to unbinding spells (with the caster suffering D3 mortal wounds, or D6 on a 10+, he can be a real pain when it comes to magic-users) and all of the other gifts he comes with, your opponent won’t be able to focus on just one of these two top bosses.

We’re also going to throw in a couple of sub-leaders into this list as well, with an Orruk Warchanter who will have some Ironjawz units to inspire when he drops those beatz, and a Swampcalla Shamen with Pot-grot to conjure up some magic for your Kruleboyz. Also any list that includes a Pot-grot is a winner in my books.

Batteline

We’re going to keep this simple and take just the three mandatory units we’d need for a matched play game. We’ve got two units of five Brutes as our Ironjawz contingent who are just as tough and fighty as they ever were, and a unit of 10 Kruleboyz Gutrippaz who we probably want to have Wicked Hackas for that 3+ to wound (rather than the 4+ on the Wicked Sticka which does have an extra inch of range. All three of these units are slow moving, but they’ll also be pretty hard to get off objectives, especially with those support leaders that we have.

Other Units

The rest of this army is made up of some really fun units that all have different jobs to do. A unit of three Man-skewer boltboyz give you some handy ranged attacks to use to protect those slow moving troops. With 24” of range on their “aimed shot”, that’s really descent range to have. Then we’re taking three Gore-gruntas to help support Goredrakk a little bit. They’ve got a wicked charge and hit like a brick so they should worry your opponents for a little while at least. Lastly we’re taking the Marshkrawla Sloggoth which is a miniature I just adore – it’s truly horrible and that’s great for the Kruleboyz. What’s more, it has abilities that will work well with the entire army, from using it’s drummer to add 1 to the hit rolls of ALL allies (so Ironjawz too), it’s ability to heal wounds every turn, and it’s got some decent attacking options as well.

The List:

Gordrakk, Fist of Gork (Leader/Behemoth)

Gobsprakk, Mouth of Mork (Leader/Behemoth)

Orruk Warchanter (Leader)

Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (Leader)

5x Orruk Brutes (Battleline)

5x Orruk Brutes (Battleline)

10x Gutrippaz (Battleline)

3x Man-skewer Boltboyz

3x Orruk Gore-gruntas

Marshcrawla Sloggoth 

Points: Bang on 2000

Model Count: A very lazy-painter-friendly 32 miniatures and one of those is a Pot-grot. Granted, two of them are absolutely massive but it still counts because they’re a lot of fun.

Army Name: Fist Mouth

Additional Stuff: I genuinely like the look of this army, and I’m very tempted by going down this route myself as I think it would play to my strengths. You’ve got a big blob of hard to shift, constantly buffed battleline units that, while slow, will be very hard to kill, and a fast moving, hard hitting contingent to get the krumpin’ going early doors. What’s more, you can make both an Ironjawz Fist and a Kruleboyz Finga core battalion out of this army which does give you plenty of boons. 

Having Gordrakk and Gobsprakk on the field is going to make your opponent very worried and I guarantee that even if those two aren’t around at the end of the battle, they’ll have taken a huge chunk of your enemies with them. We got in plenty of new awesomeness in the form of all the Kruleboyz stuff, and the Ironjawz are a faction I’ve been a big fan of since they first appeared so this is a real win for me.

Ok, so there are no Bonesplitterz in this list but I really have no problem with that. They’re a natural horde army that doesn’t really fit into the “Lazy Painter” way of thinking and if we’re being honest, the models just don’t look great compared to the big guys and the swamp guys. 

You’ve got fast moving things, flying things, plenty of magic, monsters, troops and all compacted into 32 miniatures costing 2000 points. That’s not bad, right?!

Do you think we’re onto a winner with this list? Or do you think we’re stuck in the swamp? Let me know in the comments below, and until next time, Onwards!