Wednesday 9 October 2013

Back to ogres.

Guts, the Black Swordsogre.
I've had time to look over ogres again and after deliberating I feel as if I've come across a few minor points that warrant attention with ogres.

Basic stuff: If you want a decent list you're going to need a few things.

Firstly, a wizard is nearly mandatory. Slaughtermasters sometime seem necessary as well as a scroll caddy butcher. You'll want a bruiser carrying your BSB as well and that's a lot of points sunk into heroes and lords. The basic tip is to don't go overboard on spending, be conservative and hope you play at higher points levels.

You'll want a block or two of gnoblars. Chaff is good, chaff with sharp stuff is better. Gnoblars are a cheap way to put down 2 units before you put down the rest of your army to try and outposition them.

Sabertusks are still awesome, 3 lone ones are really worth it.

Monsters are hit and miss. The ironblaster isn't. Mobile cannon shots will always be justified.

Ogres are not an 'armour' army. Mournfangs are the sole exception and their own beast. Keep this in mind.

Magic: Ogres have expensive wizards because of a killer and durable statline, as well as the option to take armour, which you'll probably never do because you want a Hellheart. Ogres are good at counter-magic, via hellheart, scroll caddies, sabertusks going for wizards and maneaters able to snipe them out. You're going to want to play to this. A level 4 slaughtermaster isn't mandatory, just pretty good. Ogres can get away with a level 2 butcher and taking some anti-wizard options.

Do you want a close combat lord? The answer is maybe. Bruisers are decent but the benefits of low points clash with only 50 points of magic item allowance. You need those points for decent armour, a ward save and some strength boosting.

I did say ogres aren't an armour army and this remains true. You really will either have a 4+ save at worst or a 2+ at best. Whilst armour is valuable, you'll rely mostly on tanking wounds and a decent ward save, just enough to turn around and tear their face off.

The thing is, a close combat tyrant can reach S8 with a great weapon, which is absolutely painful. 2+ saves are ignored, 1+ saves are a 6+ against you, you wound anything T6 or less on a 2+ and anything above is probably a monster, and you're in a unit and you're going to demolish it. You strike last but against other combat lords, you would have done anyway because most have high initiative or struck at the same time if they have ASL.

You can also be unhittable but I like S8. It's what inspired me to make Guts, the Black Swordsogre as you see above. He's got the following equipment: heavy armour, great weapon, giantbreaker, talisman of preservation, dragonhelm. 307 points.

The other thing to note is that without a tyrant your army is stuck at LD8 at best. You can get around this (another hero or lord in a unit with a standard of discipline) but the tyrant just gives it out. It's worth a mention as being routed has happened, will happen and can ruin a game due to your general average leadership.

Equipment: Great weapons suit you but I'd still take ogres over ironguts for your core simply because you'll win with bodies and your heavy hitting stuff is competant enough. A great weapon on a butcher or a bruiser if you have the points is a solid investment.

Greedy Fist just isn't worth it. I love how efficient it is but quite frankly, it's efficient in the wrong places. Sure, +1 strength baseline is solid and so is a 6+ ward save as well as 'eating' magic items but a 6+ ward save is nothing to really care about, as on a combat kitted character you're going to want the 4++ and on a caster it's largely wasted as you need to save your points and have a hellheart or a dispel scroll. Wizards losing levels is sweet but when are you going to ever do that? I guess in a Storm of Magic game, a slaughtermaster who can afford this will be a tough nut to crack on a fulcrum. Nobody plays Storm of Magic though.

Giantbreaker is a great big name. It stacks, it's baseline so it adds to impact hits and stomps and it's 5 points over a magic item. You can use it with a great weapon for a S8 beast. You can't flee nor refuse challenges but it doesn't say you can't make a Crusher accept the challenge instead.

Not that you'd deny a challenge either most of the time but you can circumvent it.

Lists: I'm going for an interesting 2.5k list here. Combat lord, no slaughtermaster, only one ironblaster. A bit fun, a bit tweaked. I'm eager to try it out.

    Tyrant: Giantbreaker, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour - 307
    Bruiser: BSB, Great Weapon, Armour of Destiny - 191
    Butcher: Hellheart, Great Weapon, Level 2 - 194
     
    44 Gnoblars: 110
    43 Gnoblars: 107.5
    7 Ogres: Ironfists, Musician, Champion, Standard - 242
    7 Ogres: Ironfists, Musician, Champion, Standard - 242
    7 Ogres: Ironfists, Musician, Standard - 232
     
    5 Maneaters: Musician, Champion, Standard, Heavy Armour, 5 Braces of Ogre Pistols - 360
    4 Mournfangs: Ironfists, Heavy Armour, Musician, Champion, Standard - 280
    1 Sabertusk - 21
    1 Sabertusk - 21
    1 Sabertusk - 21
     
    Ironblaster - 170
     
    2498.5

Let's see how things go, shall we?

1 comment:

  1. omfg make the annoying sound stop. seriously, websites that use sound are ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete