Bruiser star

Has anyone ever tried running multiple cheap bruisers in a unit as a WS5 T5 wall in front of ironguts?

In 2500pts I can run a bruiser BSB with 5+ ward and magic weapon, and 3-4 bruisers with heavy armor and ironfist. The BSB and slaughtermaster happily join some ironguts with Standard of Discipline, the cheap bruisers join something like 8 ironguts and make way in combat as they are harder to hit and have better armor and toughness. With minor items they could have 3+ armor.. or go great weapons for S7.

If you want to get crazy you could run 3 bruisers and a butcher running maw, and a slaughtermaster running beasts!

You could!
The T5 is nice to have but considering the cost of bruisers versus ironguts I'd skip the bruisers and buy more ironguts for the units. Point for point the IGs have a higher damage output, more wounds and last longer (even considering the T4).

Of course if you go character heavy, you should (must?!) go for a lvl4 beast to really boost those characters.
Getting the boosted spell with +3T makes the bruiser front row close to untouchable and the +3S/+3A will tear up anything.
Item-wise go for 4++ save and similar to keep the guys alive. And skip the +1ld banner - get something more beneficial for killing stuff ; )... the +1M banner will get you in combat before the units is killed by cannons or magic.

So if you are up for it, the whole army should be dedicated to the purpose of bring death by bruisers : )

Go for it and enjoy!

Has anyone ever tried running multiple cheap bruisers in a unit as a WS5 T5 wall in front of ironguts?

In 2500pts I can run a bruiser BSB with 5+ ward and magic weapon, and 3-4 bruisers with heavy armor and ironfist. The BSB and slaughtermaster happily join some ironguts with Standard of Discipline, the cheap bruisers join something like 8 ironguts and make way in combat as they are harder to hit and have better armor and toughness. With minor items they could have 3+ armor.. or go great weapons for S7.

If you want to get crazy you could run 3 bruisers and a butcher running maw, and a slaughtermaster running beasts!

I did that.  I engaged a dwarf hoard of hammerers with a Lord, thane, and rune smith.  I had1 bsb, 2 regular bruisers, 1 butcher, 1 SM, 1 FB, and the dragonhide banner.  I got +3T, +3A, +3S, and regen on the unit in the first round of combat.  My opponent quit... He couldnt weaken the unit enough because of regen and wyssians, then they pasted in combat...  It isn't unbeatable, but it is unexpected.

it is very effective when used in a gutstar with full ranks. However it is unwieldy to use and one Psun and you will be sad. i used to use it but it gets boring to use.