[Samhain]

IV. STRATEGY

Ogre Kingdoms is not, however much it may superficially resemble Hinnom, a power nation. While it has a very respectable early game, by mid game its shortcomings can be fairly crippling if not prepared for well in advance. And, its end game doubly so.


A. Pretender Theory

Pretender design strategies will generally be based on the size and composition of the map, game settings, and the opposing nations. There are a few good principles to keep in mind though.

The most critical path missing from the available summonable or recruitable national mages is astral. And,the low magic resistance of Ogres only increases its necessity. So, unless the game is expected to be resolved before your opponents' spells can make this flaw fatal, include at least a few levels of astral.

As you don't get recruitable site searchers, you will be hamstrung early without a mobile pretender with paths in the gem types you are after. Otherwise, 4 or more levels in nature and/or earth offer useful blesses for your Butchers and Slaughtermasters while also ensuring depth in those essential paths. Death is also nice as death summons tend to synergize well with Ogre summons, like Yhetee which have cold auras and mapmove 3 or Gorgers which have darkvision 75 and, likewise, mapmove 3. Blood is the least needed path, but a point of blood on a rainbow mage can be very useful in broadening the available range of blood summons.

As a blood nation Ogre Kingdoms plays well with turmoil/luck. You tend to move more provinces over to blood production and do so earlier than with other blood nations. And, you have the tools to push your dominion into your neighbors where your candles will become turmoil/misfortune for them. But, if you plan to delay your move into blood hunting a bit, order will net you more gold with which can build you more castles which in turn provide more places to recruit Butchers and Ironguts. So, choose what works best for the strategy you plan to deploy and don't forget that there are five options between turmoil 3 and order 3. Personally, I don't take more than 1 level of misfortune and even then only when using order 3.

Ogres can make good use of production. If you are playing a bless strategy with Pitfighters, planning to build many forts quickly, or content with Bulls then sloth is even acceptable. I often like recruiting lots of Ironguts the first 12 turns and will pay for a bit of production to do so when I can.

You get two free levels of cold, so of course you are going to take them. Other than the hit to your income, 3 levels will generally hurt others more than you. It again depends on your strategy. If you aren't pushing dominion aggressively, your blood summons won't mind as they will tend to be on the periphery of your empire where Heat/Cold is affected by your neighbors. And, at home, any Yhetees you have in or near the lab will love it.

Always take growth to compensate for the population loss due to blood hunting and to provide more grub for your Ogres. How many levels you take depends on how much blood hunting you will do, how big your armies need to be inside your dominion, and how much you can afford.

Magic is also a must. Magic of 1 or more makes the Butcher your most efficient researcher in terms of research points for the amount of gold at 36.66 gold per research point to recruit. Drain 2 or lower on the other hand makes him a horrendous 110 gold per 1 research point to recruit. No matter how modest your research goals, a point or three in magic will get you there much quicker and/or allow you more freedom to send your Butchers and other mages out to support your armies or to hunt for blood slaves.

Unfortunately, as of version 0.9 Ogre Kingdoms have neither national pretender options nor access to any non-default chassis. You'll just have to make due with the basics. In the next section are a list of the more successful design strategies I've come up with.


B. Pretender Practice

Imprisoned Cyclops, E9, Dom8, T3C2G3L3M3

Imprisoned Titan, A5E4N4, Dom9, T3C2G3L3M3

These two pretenders are just variations of the same strategy, one particularly well suited for playing Ogre Kingdoms in small, fast games. It encourages rapid expansion by giving Pitfighters and holy blood mage commanders a decent bless. The long-term battle plan though is dominion push. With temples at 100 gold apiece and Facets of the Maw offering easy access to H3 blood sacrificers, kill by dominion is a piece of cake for Ogres. Dom kill is also a nice method for fighting water nations as it provides an alternate path to victory than sending your Ogres under the waves or spending gems on amphibious summons.

Magic 3 helps compensate for the loss of your pretender for three years. Just drop the labs you intend to use for summoning the Facets of the Maw on provinces with recruitable independent mages. With +2 research, even tribal shamans are great researchers for the price.

This strategy should be soaked in blood and not just for blood sacrifices. Since what little gold you can scrape from the population is used for building labs and temples and recruiting Ogre and independent mages, divert some of those slaves to your labs for the Anoint Mawtribe spell. They are a good bargain regardless, but particularly with an E9 or decent E/N bless.


Awake Enchantress, A3S4E4B1, Dom5, T1P1C3G2L3M1

This pretender design provides access to air magic for the excellent gear and battlefield spells that path provides. It also includes the nearly essential path of astral. The 2 points of reinvigoration and 1 point of magic resistance provided by this bless will be appreciated by your Butchers and Slaughtermasters. By taking a point of blood, Storm Demons and Horrors are much more accessible.


Dormant Enchantress, A1E9S4N4B1, Dom4, T3S1C2G2L3M1

If you like the Enchantress above but really feel you need a stronger bless, for instance if Ogre blood mages wading into battle will be done for reasons beyond mere stop-gap measures, then this design even has the Titan and Cyclops beat in that category and does so with a 1 year rather than 3 year wait. Dom4 may not be a good choice for a dominion killing machine, but those same dominion pushing resources can also be used to compensate for a weak one. And, you get the added advantage of not needing to empower an Ogre Hunter or tribal shaman to B1 for forging Jade Knives.


Awake Crone, W2S4D3N5B1, Dom4, 02C2G2M1

This is my favorite pretender design for Ogre Kingdoms, in part because I just like picturing this little old lady ruling over her empire of bloodthirsty Ogres. Though, it takes a bit of time to mature.

Nature gems, as I said earlier, are critical to a successful Ogre strategy. This design provides site searching for them as soon as expansion starts and the ability to cast Mother Oak without having to research construction to level 4 for a Thistle Mace. Once at conjuration 6, she can also summon Lamia Queens and Spectres to help diversify your magic paths. Naiad Warriors, Awaken Dark Vines, and Bind Ice Devil are all also within reach with a few boosters.

Scales may take some tweaking to fit your particular situation and gaming style but the goal in this case is to take advantage of a delayed shift to a blood economy to pursue conjuration and alteration by earning a bit more gold.

Just don't think of her as a battle mage, except in the most dire of circumstances. Keep her behind the lines site searching and performing other magical duties. Leave the heroics to her big, hungry boys and naughty summoned pets.


TACTICS

A. Earlygame

The centerpiece of most Ogre expansion armies in the early game is a band of Ogre Bulls or Ironguts packed around a Slaughtermaster set to hold and attack while the mage buffs them with Bullgorger, Trollguts, or whatever is most appropriate to the situation. When facing a small number of hard hitters, use Trollguts. For protection against large numbers of weaker opponents or masses of archers, Toothcracker tends to be a better bet.

Twelve Ironguts or about 20 Ogre Bulls with the right buff will handle most level 5 independent armies. The latter in particular may need some Gnoblars or independent infantry with shields to form an arrow/cavalry screen however.

As soon as possible, start recruiting independent archers and crossbowmen to target enemy archers and to dish out damage while your Ogres are receiving their buffs. But, with a mapmove of 2 and both wasteland and mountain survival standard I rarely find independent heavy cavalry worth the expense.


B. Midgame

Hopefully, during the early game you were targeting your research to provide you with the spells that best improve your chances against the types of threats you will most likely face. Your success in the midgame will be determined by how well you can synergize your magical and conventional assets.

For Ogre Kingdoms, packs of Ironguts and Bulls enhanced with the Ogre national blood magic buffs will likely continue to provide the bulk of your force. But, here are some ideas on how to capitalize on what is typically a major resource for Ogres by this stage of the game, Henchfiends.

Since they fly and are stealthy, it is easy to hold your Henchfiends in reserve until they are needed then deploying only those types that are appropriate to opponents you face.

The F2 variety has access to a lot of great Evocation spells, especially after casting Phoenix Power, for killing off masses of weak troops. If instead you see yourself facing bands of thugs or giants who don't have good (18+) magic resistance, research alteration and neuter that threat with Blindness.

Also nice for countering small numbers of powerful opponents is the Corpse Candle spell available to the F1D1 casters at Conj5. And, the D2 Henchfiends can provide the universally useful skellispam via Raise Skeletons. If possible provide them with Skull Staves to reduce their fatigue.

To target enemy researches and other non-thug commanders, equip a henchfiend with a black heart to make a flying, fire-proof, summonable assassin. Total cost without a Dwarven Hammer or blood site is just 26 blood slaves and two turns of blood mage time. Use the F2 variety against commanders without fire protection. Or, give him a Heartfinder Sword and Black Steel Tower Shield to give him some melee punch.

Of course, Ogres have many other options at this stage. One is to create a Sabbath with a group of Butchers mastered by a Slaughtermaster to make melee powerhouse. With the E1 variety you can try Summon Earth Power and Invulnerability. With the F1 Slaughtermasters, Phoenix Power and Fire Shield will give them a good boost. Of course, don't forget the Ogre standard blood buffs.


C. Endgame

The final phase of most Dominions3 games involves heavy use of geared up super combatants. Typically, a successful strategy still makes use of regulars, they are just of a better variety than what most nations can recruit. By this phase, an Ogre Kingdom nation should be fielding some combination of the unholy trinity of blood summoned troops; Demon Knights, Devils, and Storm Demons.

For bagging your opponents' super combatants Research Blood 9 and bring out your F1 Slaughtermasters (or Mawfiends wielding Blood Thorns). Infernal Prison is an excellent means to remove an enemy unit that otherwise seems invulnerable to every weapon in your arsenal.

Fighting on your behalf will almost certainly be a number of blood royals; Ice Devils, Arch Devils, and Heliophoguses. But, don't overlook Vampire Lords, summoned via the Curse of Blood ritual. Mawfiends can summon them with boosters if you don't have the means otherwise. Vampire Lords have 0 encumbrence, 10% regeneration, 100% cold resistance, 100% poison resistance, and stealth. What's more, they fly and have 3 levels of death magic, the latter which allows them to cast Soul Vortex, perhaps the best thug spell in the game. Unlike the royals, you don't have to worry about another player summoning them first. And, to top it off, they are immortal.


D. Province Defense

Ogre Kingdoms province defense is literally in a class all by itself. Don't hesitate to set all of your provinces at moderately high levels, from 10 to 15, to protect against most random events and the weaker raiding spells, such as Arouse Hunger or Call of the Wild. And, keep some gold in reserve to crank up your PD in the path of an invading army or, in the later game, to hold key provinces taken by one of your super combatant raiders. For maximum effect, bolster the defense with a few mages set to cast buffs or other complimentary battlefield spells.