With the advent of the Ogre Kingdoms being rereleased for 8th edition, isn't it time we walked down memory lane, nostalgia goggles rosed up and tinted so we could look back at what is, compared to what will be?
I've decided to try and take my hand at writing up a Then & Now comparison for the Ogre Kingdoms. Let's review what we know and see if times change for the better.
The Old book was written by a certain Phil Kelly. Back in 2003 before he got around to Space Wolves and Dark Eldar, the gods of Games Workshop instructed him to write out a book for the Ogre Kingdoms. And so he did, and what a wonderful trip it was. It was so full of cool and interesting fluff about our favourite fatties. All the possibilities of an Ogre Clan or family, their markings and rituals and where they get their equipment from.
Then you read the rules, expecting that your army of ogres would be a match and beat the face off those dark elves or daemons. Surely, Might makes right?
Not entirely.
Ogres had a few things going for them but they never really hit the level needed to make them something better. They had a fair few dud units to contend with, whilst the rest was overpriced for what it did. 8th edition came out and helped to drag it out of the gutter, but the bar was raised further in other armies, thus they could not achieve their potential.
You had a few gems in the rough though, so let's briefly go through our options.
Tyrant: Pretty much mandatory, shaving 200 points off your army to just exist. Most lords have better weapon skill, initiative and starting equipment and they cost 50 points less, whilst you gain 2 wounds and an extra attack or something. Comes with light armour and a club standard. You can gear him out and he's the only one that can get a decent Big Name, and he has a normal magical item budget.
All in all, he can beat face, much like a diamond encrusted pimp cane can be used to save you using a TV remote by pushing on the power button from your chair.
You can give him a great weapon (decent, but you have initiative 4, so against other characters you strike last all the time anyway), additional weapon (not really), ironfist (slightly better), cathayan longsword (+1 WS and I, armour piercing. Best of your mundane choices). Can also take a brace of hanguns to compliment your ballistic skill of an elf archer for 10 points. You have to buy heavy armour?! For 6 points. Can take two sword gnoblars or a luck gnoblar.
Not looking too flashy at all. How do we make him work? Give him a Cathayan Longsword, Greyback Pelt (-1 to hit in close combat, no yhetees), Glittering Scales and Mawseeker (+1 toughness but no stupidity). This costs you 280 points. For a WS7 guy with a -2 penalty to hit in close combat, T6 and W5. Defensive, hard to kill in a challenge and can hit back well enough. Still overpriced. If you want a level 4 wizard, you need him, so he needs to be decked out properly.
Slaughtermaster: 200 points for a level 4 wizard With WS4, S4, T5, W5 and 4 attacks. No armour. If you play storm of magic, you can slap him on a fulcrum and I guarantee a bright wizard can't melee you to death. Still expensive for what it can do, plus you need to buy a Tyrant. His price tag is close to 400-600 if you want him. Yeah, no. 100 points of magic items and immunity to poison. Give him a bangstick and a dispel scroll and you can do a fair bit of damage. Overpriced, can't take him on his own, still not impressive at all.
Bruiser: Shave off 70 points from your Tyrant and you lose a point of weapon skill, a wound, a point of initiative, an attack and a dot of leadership. You still have only light armour and a weapon. Your mundane equipment costs less (By about 2 points each) and you only get a 50 point budget on your magic bling. Looking promising, except you can't buy enough stuff to deck him out properly. Bugger. Can be a Battle Standard Bearer by tacking on 25 points and more magic item restrictions.
The issue is that he's actually not horrifically priced. If you take a bruiser as a general and one as your BSB, you can't afford a butcher for magic support. No, you need a tyrant for a slaughtermaster. Yes, you will have to buy a tyrant anyway to be your general, and your bruiser is your battle standard bearer. Suck it up, fatty.
Hunter: For 145 points you take a bruiser, add a point of leadership and ballistic skill and give him a shoddy bolt thrower. 50 points of magic items however. You can buy two sabertusks at 20 points each, which aren't too bad. No mundane equipment.
Never seen because of two things. One, he can't be your general. Two, you need a bruiser for a battle standard and a butcher for your magic support if you don't take a Slaughtermaster. Goddamnit Kelly. Doesn't provide much, just a half rate bolt thrower and two big cats.
Butcher: Costs 130 points like the bruiser. No armour. Your level 2 wizard Has 1 less weapon skill, wound, point of initiative, attack and dot of leadership than a slaughtermaster. 50 points of magic items, immunity to poison. Hey, he doesn't look too bad and being level 2 is by all means not shabby, especially considering the only thing that's better is a lord choice. Bang stick and a dispel scroll and he's good to go. Worth taking for lack of better, but decent.
Bulls: Standard fatties. Comes with a weapon. 35 points. You can give him an additional weapon for 4 points (no thanks) or an ironfist for 5 points (the benefit of an additional weapon when I need more attacks, and the benefit of a shield (only in close combat, useless against ranged weapons) when I need a parry save? For 1 point more, no brainer). Light armour for 3 points. Champion and banner costs you 20 points (almost 2/3rds the cost of a normal bull), musician costs you 10. Look-out gnoblar (which is useless as far as I can tell) for 5 points.
That's it. Oh, and you have to take at least 3, no matter what.
Overpriced compared to what it comes up against. Sure, you get your impact hits (if you're further than 6 inches away) and 3 support attacks per ogre, and stomps, but you can only pump out so much damage before the initial attacks you have to face (initiative 2) chip away at your unarmoured, lardy asses. You can't gear them up either. An ogre with an ironfist and light armour is 43 points. An irongut is 48. What would you rather take?
Take 3, run them naked for your butcher/slaughtermaster to run with so he has some additional wounds, don't look back. No, bull deathstars don't work because you're one initiative test away from a purple sun eating your unit.
Ironguts: Your ogre bull can upgrade from his 35 ungeared self to a 48 point irongut. These hardy ogres claim the best loot and are well respected for their ability to cleave people in half with 10 foot weapons. For 13 points, you gain heavy armour, a great weapon and a dot of leadership. I'm pretty certain that isn't worth it, but we'll keep going further.
Champion and Banner cost 20 points, musician costs just 10. Look-out gnoblar for 5 points. Oh! You can get a magical banner of up to 50 points. A nice addition, seeing as you want to spend even more points.
Yet, people take Ironguts. At initiative 2, bulls usually strike last anyway so you want to cause more damage when you do. Ironguts can take some hits better, that was until parry saves came along and your bulls with ironfists could get a 6+ ward save. Still not better as that bull costs 40 points anyway. Plus the addition of a magic banner, letting you take a Rune Maw so you don't get a purple sun shot at you every turn without fail.
4 Ironguts with a Champion, Banner, Musician and a Rune Maw sets you back 262 points. For 4 ogres?! I can get 48 Clanrats with a full command, shields and spears for 260 points. They don't hit at strength 6 but they don't need to with that many clanrats in a horde.
Take 4 with a full command for 242, you really don't have much choice.
Gnoblars: A green, non ogre substitute. For 2 points each, you get a WS2, S2 walking wound that has a thrown weapon without quick to fire, but 2x multiple shots. You can buy a champion for 2 points, but no banner or musician. At the start of every phase, you roll a dice. If you roll a 1, they do absolutely nothing for that turn. They move at 4 so can't keep up with your ogres. Still, they provide your flanks with cover and can tarpit something nasty until you realise that leadership 5 cannot reliably keep in combat, nor can the lack of a banner or musician help you out.
The real reason you don't see that many gnoblar units is because you need a unit of ogre bulls to take a unit of gnoblars. Bullshit restrictions aside, they do a decent job of protecting flanks and will harass your enemy by throwing sharp shit in their face and tying them up for a round or two of combat. Then they break because they have no command group and get run down due to their movement speed of 4.
50 gnoblars with a champion is 102 points and is the best you'll get.
Trappers: 6 point Gnoblars that don't count towards the core and are restricted to 1, unless you take a hunter in which case you could take two. You won't have a hunter so you're stuck with 1.
4 points over a normal gnoblar gets you the scout and skirmish rule. If you have a hunter nearby they use his leadership but seeing as you don't, you'll rely on your leadership of 5. If you did have a hunter, your units of trappers could use a stand and shoot reaction against the unit for free without a -1 penalty to do so. The only issue here is that you've scouted, so you're out of range of your sharp stuff.
16 trappers and a BS4 champion sets you back 100 points. If you add 2 more points, you could get the above 50 normal gnoblars and a champion.
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