This month is bringing a massive host of updates to Age of Sigmar as the setting transitions to Ghyran, the realm of life. Each army is getting two whole pages of additional rules and optional alternative warscrolls for you to use in your games and we are very excited about all of it! Before we get stuck in, a thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these rules as an early release to review.
Oh, Ironjawz. The mean, green, iron-clad lads haven’t had the best run of it in the fourth edition of Age of Sigmar. Initial impressions of the faction pack gave a little spark of hope after a lackluster streak at the end of 3rd edition, but that was quickly extinguished as results rolled in. Battlescrolls and the Battletome gave a little bit of additional oomph in the form of an every-turn Waaagh! and reasonably impactful manifestation lore and terrain piece, and an Army of Renown that has achieved some top-table results. Ultimately though despite all this, a great anvil unit in Ardboyz and Brutes being one of the highest damage hammers in the game if you can get them buffed and into combat safely, Ironjawz have struggled to feel like they can compete. Clearly I’ve got skin in the game here, so I’m excited to see what’s being added in the Scourge of Ghyran!
Battle Formations
First up, the Ironjawz pick up two new Battle Formation options for listbuilding – one focused around extra movement, and one helping them to duff up bigger enemies.
Brutefist
The Brutefist gives you a new ability called Mightiest Destroyers, usable once per battle round in any hero phase. As long as there is a Megaboss on the board, you can choose a second different unit to get the 3″ move when you use Mighty Destroyers. If you don’t have any Megabosses left, you have to roll a 3+ to get the effect. This is a nice option for a Brute-heavy force (as the name suggests), seeing as you’ll often be taking a Megaboss and will really benefit from the extra unit moving faster (or in later turns, moving into combat). This one’s likely to become a strong contender once Field Sergeant goes away at the end of the season and all of the Orruks get slower again.
One point of order – it’s not clear whether “Megabosses” is also supposed to imply inclusion of the Megaboss on Maw-Krusha or not. The only real comparison I can think of is the Stormcast Heroes of the First-Forged army of renown, which names “Annihilators” and “Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers” separately, rather than catching both under one umbrella. For now I think it has to be assumed that this means one or more of the foot Megaboss warscroll, and the mounted one doesn’t count. We’ve requested clarification, but chuck your thoughts in the comments if I’ve missed something obvious.
Bigsnikkas
The Bigsnikkas get to Duff Up Da Big Thing once per turn (army) in any combat phase, getting +1 to wound for the target’s combat attacks that target an enemy unit with a greater health characteristic their own. Getting a high volume of Brute or Ardboy attacks wounding on 2+ is definitely a tempting proposition, although I do wonder if this is too situational. It’s a nice bonus when clapping back against a cavalry charge, which does seem to happen a lot at the moment, but overall I feel like the formations that enable extra attacks, wards, and extra movement are all a bit more compelling.
Monstrous Traits
For the second table of new rules, we get a selection of Monstrous Traits. It’s great to see this because the core rules around enhancements let you pick one from each type available to you, meaning that these are adding something to your force without youhaving to weigh up the opportunity cost of a previous enhancement.
Big ‘Un
Nice and simple: Add 1 to the Rend characteristic of this unit’s Companion weapons. Great on a Maw-Krusha, or on any flavour of Maw-Grunta. Not much more to be said really, it’s free rend.
Mad ‘Un
A combat phase ability, usable when the monster has charged. Roll a D3, on a 2+ do that many mortal wounds, and if any models are slain by the ability you can immediately use it again. Put this on a Maw-Krusha alongside the existing Hulking Brute heroic trait for a big lad that can potentially do a total of D6 + D3 + D3 + D3x2 mortal damage between charge phase and combat phase abilities, a theoretical maximum of 18. If you’re interested (and if I’ve done my maths right) the rough odds of that happening are 1/389, assuming that you’re fighting infantry with no more than 3 wounds that don’t have a ward save. A lot of “ifs” but even by itself Mad ‘Un is a nice way of adding an extra bit of damage to your monster of choice.
Fast ‘Un
A return from previous editions, this gives your monster a once per game normal move in your Hero Phase. Great for getting an alpha-striking monster up the board on your first turn, although Ironjawz monsters that overextend on turn one tend to have a nasty habit of being immediately put back into your army case. It might be better kept in the back pocket for a later-game objective grab or battle tactic setup.
Warscrolls
Two warscrolls get a new look for the Ironjawz, and it’s two that could definitely do with a bit of a refresh.
Gore-Gruntas
Gore-gruntas have had a bit of a fall from grace with the advent of the Bigger Pig. Sure, a unit 15 wounds behind a 3+ save is quite nice, but it was tempered by them being almost clinically incapable of dealing damage to anything beyond a few impact mortal wounds.
First and foremost – no more impact mortal damage. Instead, the unit has Barge Through, meaning it can pass through enemy Infantry units’ models and combat ranges whenever it moves, although it can’t end in combat unless the move ability allows it to (e.g. Charge). This is situationally useful, but a grunta unit occupies a lot of real estate. Assuming you start 3″ away from an infantry line, you don’t actually have enough movement to completely cross and stay out of combat unless the bases are side-on. Still, it could enable some retreating into annoying positions, ready to threaten backfield heroes.
The updated scroll feels like tuning more than anything, and isn’t as extreme as some of the changes we’ve seen. The core stats remain the same (5 health, 9″ move, 2 control, 3+ save), but the weapons get a bit of a change. The Choppa/Hacka swaps Anti-Cavalry (+1 Rend) for Charge (+1 Damage), and the Grunta’s Tusks get bumped to Rend 1. So far so good, but in exchange for this the poor Gruntas lose an attack on each profile
This feels unnecessarily punitive, and in fact means that on the charge there is very little damage difference between the old and new scrolls. Add in the average 2 mortals from the impact damage and the older scroll actually out-damages the new one! On the upside though, the non-Companion attack that benefits from extra attacks from the Waaagh! etcetera is now actually worth having more of, which moves the needle a bit. Oh, and these Gore-Gruntas cost 20 points more than the existing ones, at 200 points per three. Never say never, maybe moving through your opponent’s lines will be a key strategy in the next season, but you also don’t need to tactically shuffle across your opponent’s models if your units have the killing power to just get rid of them, which these definitely don’t.
Weirdbrute Wrekkaz
Up next is the Weirdbrute Wrekkaz, with a simple change. All characteristics and weapons stay exactly the same, but they swap their run and charge ability for a new combat phase ability. Once per turn (army) in any combat phase, the Wrekkaz can use Propa Wonky. If they’re in combat, you can pick a friendly Ironjawz unit wholly within 12″ to be the target, and give that unit +1 to hit for the rest of the turn.
Given Orruks’ unfortunate propensity for hitting on a 4+, this definitely has potential to be useful, whether you’re using it to buff another unit or just having the Wrekkaz pick themselves for the +1. it really feels like a case of deciding what you want to use your Wrekkaz for – this variant costs 110 points instead of 100, and is less mobile, so if you’re using them as cheap flank takers the old, more-mobile warscroll might be more suitable still. Overall this isn’t as much of a buff as I’d hoped for really, but it is definitely an option, and no doubt the new season will change the context of these releases slightly.
Conclusions
It’s a real game of two halves, this one. The Brutefist formation seems genuinely good and usable, regardless of keyword clarity, and the other one is definitely not useless. The monstrous traits are fantastic too, with all three of them being genuinely useful. The warscrolls are disappointing though. Ironjawz constantly feel like they’re on the cusp of performing well, but just have to work too hard for it, and these scrolls haven’t really done anything to move the needle. I do think they’ll see situational use, especially the Wrekkaz, and I’m keen not to write anything off before we’ve got the full context of the 2025-26 season.
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