AoS: Hero Focus – Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (Ready)
Here’s why you should never leave home without a Maw-Krusha in your Orruk list.
With White Dwarf 451 floating around, Ironjawz are seeing some pretty snazzy new toys, complete with a new “special character”, Dakkbad Grotkicker. While he doesn’t get any special rules, being a Maw-Krusha Megaboss is beefy enough, as those guys don’t mess around. Here’s my review of the mounted Megaboss, specifically from Ironsunz, and some tactics for using him in games.
Maw-Krushas are massive walls of muscle and wounds, boasting an impressive 15 wounds, or 16 if you give him the Big ‘Un mount trait, making it one of the toughest non-Unique models in the game.
At full strength, it has a 12” move, which can again be boosted with a mount trait (Fast ‘Un pushes it up to 14”) and can fly, so it’s probably going to be in whatever combat you want it in Turn 1. It can yell before you get there to soften up its target, which you’ll want to do to take advantage of its Destructive Bulk ability (more on that in a moment). This attack gives the Maw-Krusha d6 missile attacks with an 8” range that hit on 2s, wound on 3s, and deal 1 damage with a Rend of -1.
But what you really want to be doing with this monster, as with any self-respecting Orruk, is get stuck in, and this monster rewards you for charging with its Destructive Bulk ability. When it charges, you pick one enemy unit within 1” and roll a number of dice determined by your damage table (8 at full strength) and deal a mortal wound for each roll of 5+ (or a 4+ with the Heavy ‘Un trait).
But the best part is, should you manage to kill enough models that there are no more within 3”, he can charge again, repeating the process until he doesn’t kill enough to move. If he sweeps across the battlefield after a round or two of combat (which is easier than it sounds since Ironsunz can charge in the enemy charge phase) he could potentially clear an entire section of board by himself. And once he’s stuck in, the real pain begins with either a Boss Gore-hacka and Choppa or Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist.
Both hit and wound on a 3+ and deal 2 damage with a -1 Rend, so they’re solid choices, and all you really need to decide is if you want 2 extra attacks with the Gore-hacka or the chance to deal mortal wounds back on an unmodified save roll of 6 with the Rip-toof Fist. The Maw-Krusha gets into the mix next with its Mighty Fists and Tail, giving it 8 attacks at full strength that hit and wound on a 3+ and deal 2 damage with -2 Rend, or 3 damage if you take the Mean ‘Un Trait.
Then, to make the model even nastier, should you manage to kill any models in the combat phase, you get to add 1 to this models Wound characteristic and to the attacks of the Megaboss’s weapons (but not the fists).
All of the Ironjawz special rules will almost ensure that this model makes combat, not the least of all their ability to move d6” any time they take damage while they’re more than 9” from the enemy. Aside from that, they all get +1 to charge, and can make a move or charge roll in the hero phase for a command point. The Megaboss himself can give a unit within 18” +1 to hit in the combat phase, which for most units means they’ll hit on a 2+, and of course you have the much feared once-per-battle Waaagh! As an Ironsunz player, you’re also harder to hit on the first turn, so you can almost guarantee that your bruiser will make it to combat and get to the krumpin’.
Do you use a Maw-Krusha in your Orruk army?
