Re: Ogre Kingdoms - Warhammer Nation
Hello, Maybe some of this info would help you. Also whoever said orge don't cause fear never played warhammer much at all.
Characters
When someone says the word 'ogre', a little twinge of fear sparks in your gut (calling of the Maw?). When someone says the words 'ogre lord' together, it's enough to give weak bowled thinlings indigestion. Truly, ogres characters are amongst the most dauntying of opponents in the Warhammer world. Great abilities, good items and fear causing; let's take a closer look at these rotund beasts among beasts...
Tyrants
Aptly named, these guys are a great choice for a leader when the option becomes available at 2,000 pts. They have great abilities, lacking only ever so slightly on I and WS, but this is more than made up for through phenomenal strength, toughness and wounds attributes.
Some ideas for magical kits:
- Elf Killer - Give him a Cathayan Longsword, Ironfist, heavy armour, Gut Maw, Deathcheater Big Name, Wyrdstone Necklace. The boost to WS and extra attacks means you will be hitting pretty easily, wounding even easier and most rank and file elves will not get any saves against you. Good vs low toughness enemies.
Statline: WS7, S5, T5, A6, I5, AS 4+, Ward 5+, re-roll all successful hits vs tyrant once per game, -3 enemy AS.
- Chariotbreaker - Give him a Great Weapon, Greatskull, Gut Maw, Heavy Armour, Greedy Fist, Mawseeker Big Name. Result, large strength hits causing lots of hurt, great armour save and boosted toughness to deal with impact hits that come your way. Good vs high toughness enemies.
Statline: S7, T6, AS 3+, stupidity.
- Superstrong - Give him Siegebreaker, Giantbreaker, heavy armour, Bullgut, Thiefstone. Cast bull gorger fon his units and you will have...
Statline: WS6, S10, T5, A5, 4+ AS.
Slaughtermaster
The choice cut when it comes to Gastromancy, this beast is great for giving you units the boost that they need to win you the battle. While his spells aren't the most lethal (more on that in the magic sections), they aren't the only thing to look out for, he's a decent combatant to boot, with toughness and wounds that match the tyrant's!
Some options for Slaughtermasters:
- Magic Breaker- Bloodcleaver, Dispel Scroll, 3 Gnoblar Thiefstones. Stick him in a unit and laugh at them while they try and get spell off against the unit at Magic Resistance 3!
- Boom Hur Hur Hur- Bloodcleaver, Bangstick, Power Stone x 2; and no, not offensive as in gesticulating rudely at your opponent with your model!
Special mention must be made here for the 2 special characters, Greasus Goldtooth and Skrag the Slaughterer.
Greasus Goldtooth
The much maligned Overtyrant of the Ogre Kingdoms can only be fielded in 3,000 point list, which is a bit of a nuisance, but he's not too bad for a Lord choice. While he had fewer attacks than a regular Tyrant, a wholloping stength 10 and d3 wounds per unsaved hit is a nasty prospect for any opponent to face up to. Also, don't forget his 5 sword gnoblars that are bearing his throne when you're rolling your attacks! On his own, he also has sufficient unit strength to negate enemy ranks with a flank charge too, and impact hits just like a chariot to boot! He is great at boosting friendly combat results with his Hoardmaster ability. Target isolated low LD troops with his "Everyone Has Their Price..." ability for maximum effect.
In summary, a great hero, but a tad overpriced in terms of choice selection (one Lord and hero choice would have been better IMO).
Skrag the Slaughterer
Fielding Skrag as a hero was sheer pleasure. Between the terror, frenzy and gorgers, I couldn't decide which to prasie the most. And the more that he kills, the better he gets! Gorgers also become special choices (these guys are among my favourite ogre kingdom units) so I strongly recommend filling out all spare specials with these nasties, and don't forget that 2 must accompany Skrag at the start of battle (do not arrive as per normal gorger rules). So there, you have a small unit that causes terror and has killing blow. Can it get any better I ask you?
Bruisers
Bruisers are an absolute must if your army is below 2,000 points. The boost that their leadership provides and sheer combat power is usually enough to swing combat in the favour of any unit that he accompanies.
Some tried and tested options for them are:
- Dwarf-Squisher - Giantbreaker, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Greedy Fist. Good vs high toughness, heavily armoured foes. Must take a slave giant in your list.
Statline: S8, T5, AS 4+.
- Fancy Sword- Cathayan Longsword, Ironfist, Heavy Armour, Bullgut, Wyrdstone Necklace. Good AS, higher WS, great against low toughness, lightly armoured foes.
Statline: WS6, S5, T5, A5, 4+AS, 5+ Ward.
- Mawseeker- Big Name: Mawseeker, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Gut Maw. Very tough, strong hero, fairly low AS though. Follows stupid rules though.
Statline: S7, T6, 4+ AS, stupidity.
Hunter
A very versatile unit, hunters should always be equipped with their two pet cats at the very least. The Longstrider Big Name is a great buy for them as well, this allows the whole unit to pursue 3d6 rather than 2d6 for an unmodified hunter. These guys should be used for negating ranks with flank charges and for using his harpoon to get some flank shots in (as bolt thrower).A sample I've liked using is:
- Big Steps - Longstrider, 2 kitties, Greedy Fist.
- Baby Steps - Mastodon Armour, 2 kitties.
- Ghost Steps - Big Name: Beastkiller, Greyback Pelt, 2 kitties.
Butcher
As per description for Slaughtermasters above.
Some options:
- Offensive - Boom Stick, Dispel Scroll.
- Defensive - Halfling Cookbook, Dispel Scroll.
- Vs Low Ld Enemies - Skullmantle.
A note on Gnoblar options for heroes...Always take them! Sword gnoblars add cheap attacks, granted at low strength, but they are at your ogre's WS! Tooth gnoblars are great for adding to see if you cast a spell (especially when you use one dice), and luck gnoblars no hero should not leave his yart without!
Core Units
For most armies, core units are rather ho-hum. Not for this one though, with choices like bull ogres and ironguts, even meagre core units have the potential to dish out whopping amounts of damage. Let's also not forget their little greenish side-kicks, gnoblars, who also have their uses.
Bull Ogres
You must take al least one unit of bulls for the army to be legal. And why wouldn't you, they are fantastic. Great strength and toughness, combined with enough wounds and attacks to weather a storm of blows and dish out punishment of their own. Bulls are a very versatile core choice, which can be tailored to specific roles rather well.
Naked with a club... - despite how this sounds, this is not too bad (ok, well maybe bad visually) . It's your basic cost ogre and they can be really handy against toughly armoured opponents. Try bumping up their strength just before close combat with bullgorger, and while they're out of close combat have them run around with trollguts on them.
Statline: 3 x S4 attacks, armour piercing (unmodified with spells).
Found me another club! - additional hand weapons are probably not the best option for ogre troops for the simple reason that for a point extra / model, you can have ironfists.
Rags and a spiky fist! - These things are fantastic! With ironfists you can choose whether you want to use it as a shield or additional handweapon at the start of close combat every turn! Combined with light armour, these guys are great in pretty much any situation, and they excel against lightly armoured foes and low toughness enemies. Spells to consider boosting them with in close combat are bullgorger / toothcracker, and trollguts out of close combat.
Statline: 3 or 4 attacks at S4, 6+ or 4+ AS depending on how ironfist is used.
Ironguts
When I grow up, I wanna be an Irongut! These guys are great if you can afford the points cost. While not as versatile as bulls, who needs versatility when you have heavy armour and great weapons as standard? Obvious uses for these guys are as flankers and to take out high toughness enemies (dwarfs, orcs, chhaos warriors, etc) and ogre sized enemy units (kroxi's, ushabti, minotaurs come to mind here).
Statline: 3 x S6 attacks for your basic ogre. 5+ AS for all.
Command or no command, that is the question...
With the relatively high cost for core ogre units, one has to be savvy when using command models to maximise the points available to you for troop selection. As a rule, I add a full command in my larger units (6+ models) that will be used for frontal assaults. For flanking units, I tend not to take any upgrades, or if I have a few points spare, I add a musician only.
Gnoblars
Before anyone begins to say anything about how useless they are, keep in mind that they are only 2 points per model... surely you can't expect much from that! With low movement, strength and WS, these guys are good for their outnumber and rank bonuses only (if they can keep up with your ogres that is). Possible uses for them are scraplauncha guarding duties, they would be able to provide adequate cover for any scouts or flyers in the vicinity and could be used to block LOS to prevent charges into unwanted enemies.
A second use may be to provide a unit to engage an enemy with to the front while ogres charge in for flank charges. While hard to achieve on offense, they could fulfill this role pretty easily if you're played defensively.
Also, their ability to throw sharp stuff is pretty handy, especially if they're up on a hill despite their average ballistic skills.
For two points, always take the Groinbiter. Not only is it an extra attack, but quite often you'll find your front rank will be wiped out when charged, so he'll be the only one able to fight back! And the name's too cool as well, always gets a laugh when you tell them that you have a groinbiter in the unit!
Gnoblar Trappers
These gnoblars are actually pretty useful. Being scouts and skirmishers as well, they can be used to get behind enemy lines and pepper the enemy with sharp stuff, blocking marches and taking our war machines though numbers and combining with gorgers when they arrive.
Lookout gnoblars...
These guys are very useful against artillery heavy armies (dwarves and empire especially come to mind here) so take them if you're facing off against them for any unit you plan on putting a character in. Also a good idea if the composition of your force is purely small units of ogres. Look Out Sir rolls are crucial for any army with the potential to take out your characters from afar.
Special Units
Whether it's cannon wielding maniacs, savage white beasts or an odd weapons launching war machine, the special choices are indeed great for Ogre Kingdom players and add some much needed variety to your army's mix.
Leadbelchers
While erractic in terms of the number of shots, these ogres have the potential to dish out a lethal amounts of damage. My favourite tactic with these guys is what I like to call the "Auto charge". Line then up for a shot at a given enemy unit, measure to see if you are in firing range. Remember, that you do not suffer from penalties from movement or long range either. Then, if the unit is still there, the following turn you can charge into combat most of the time, as your charge range is also 12"!
Also, while it is possible for them to reload, I have yet to reload them before charging into combat with their cannon (which count as ogre clubs). Also, I generally do not take any command upgrades, other than a Bellower if I have the points spare.
Spells to consider putting on them are bullgorger in close combat, or toothcracker / trollguts when out of combat.
Yhetees
Shaggy white death, my absolute favourite special choice without a doubt. These guys can march with ease to any location you need them to be withuot hindrance from difficult / impassable terrain. They pursue 3d6, and while they have no armour, they do have weapons that count as magical attacks and all attacks against them are at -1 to hit. Yhetees are the ultimate flankers and complement larger blocks of ironguts and bulls perfectly in most situations.
Statline: 3 x S5 attacks, -1 to Hit, magic frost weapons.
Gnoblar Scraplauncher
This contraption is one of the weirdest war machines out there. A stone thrower that uses the large template and has killing blow, but armour saves are allowed as normal against non-killing blow wounds. This would be useful against well armoured foes, such as dwarves or chaos, especially if you have filled out a few slots with these contraptions.
To make things little more interesting, they also follow the rules for chariots, so a strength 7 hit will turn them into matchwood and the rhinox pulling the contraption is champing at the bit to get into combat and usually charges if it can sight an enemy (testing on Ld5 unless your Tyrant is around to restrain).
One thing to note is that this contraption counts as unit strength 5, so it does negate rank if you flank / rear charge someone with it. A fear causing flanker is always a good thing to have on your own side!
Rare Units
Ogre rare units are the creme de la creme of ogres, each one has the edge to swing the battle in your favour. The choices are varied in terms of abilities, so let's look at the options; Maneaters, Gorgers and Slave Giants.
Maneaters
These ogres are essentially mini-bruisers that you can rank up into a unit. They are very versatile and you can even mix your weapons if you like in the unit as well! One important difference between maneaters and bruiser though, is that maneaters are immune to psychology (goodbye banshee screams) and stubborn too! Therefore, this makes them ideal for halting large fear causing units and cavalry, while the remainder of your force moves into counter charging positions!
Some options for weapons mixes are:
Boomsticks - brace of handguns, heavy armour, cathayan longswords. These maneaters can be used for fighting high WS troops, lightly armoured troops and have the ability to stand and shoot at any counter chargers - usually with no save allowed!
Statline: Multiple shots (x2) armour piercing S4, 5 x WS5, armour piercing, S5 attacks.
Wheeled Thingy Hunters - Great weapons, heavy armour. Units of 2-3 used as bait for chariot charges. One strike back at the chariot is an auto kill for you! The same combination is great for supporting Irongut charges against highly armoured opponents.
Statline: 5+ AS, Strikes Last, 4 x WS4, S7 attacks.
Slave Giants
Two Words: Cheap Giants! These guys have similar random attacks to O&G or Chaos Beastmen Giants and the same drawback (falling down too often), but unlike their other cousins, they are not subborn. Therefore, they should not be employed to hold yup or take out units on their own, rather they should be used as flanking chargers to support ogre blocks.
Another thing to be mindful of is that the giant is a large target (no duh), and enemy shooters get +1 to hit him, which tend to make him a bit of a walking pin-cushion. Use forest terrain wisely if you're fielding him!
Gorger
I love saving the best until last! Arriving from a table edge of your choice from turn 2 onwards, these guys are great for so many roles. An individual model with the statline of a Tyrant (except WS) that has killing blow and is unbreakable to boot!
First of all, they are great at taking out war machines. Secondly, they can march block well when they arive early on for you. And lastly, being unbreakable, they can charge into big blocks of infantry (heck, even cavalry) and hold then up long enough for your bigger units to take them apart.
Dogs of War
If you're considering taking them, I'd recommend taking a unit of scouts or fast cavalry (Mengil's Manflayers come to mind here). For fluffy reasons, consider also adding Golfag's Ogres, just because they're more ogres to be had!
Magical Items
Here, I'll quickly go through the prime choices for the array of unique magical items that ogres have at their disposal.
Magic Weapons
Thundermace - Fairly cheap and stone thrower template hits on everything underneath it, worked out as a stone thrower. Remember that multiple wound models recieve d6 wounds from stone throwers too! Not bad at all.
Note: you only get one attack with this weapon, and it does 1 S8 hit doing d6 wounds.
The Tenderiser - A favourite of mine to combine with the Giantbreaker Big Name. And it's a great weapon to boot. Another fantastic weapon.
Siegebreaker - take this against low initiative enemies (O&G's Dwarves, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts come to mind), great strength boost for your bruiser / tyrant. Good against the above armies.
Skullplucker - I love the fluff for this weapon! Good to take against tin can boys (dwarves, chaos warriors, elf cav, brettonians). Killing blow is always great!
Bloodcleaver - Not too bad for - butchers only - as it will allow you to regain a wound you have lost for every wound you cause in CC. I'd rather spend points on spell boosters / dispels scrolls though if you're taking a butcher though.
Magic Armour
Mastodon Armour - Ok I guess to gurantee that your bruiser / tyrant gets to close combat, but a little pricey. If you have non-magical weapons, might be an option.
Greatskull - While the ability is mediocre, adding +1 to any other armour saves is an attractive option. Again, a little pricey for what it does.
Bullgut - Another item that adds to any other armour save, and adds another impact hit to your character. Not a bad buy, and not bad value either.
Gut Maw - If you're keen on challenging everything in sight (as I am) with your bruiser / tyrant, a great one to take. Another item that adds to any other armour save (apart from the bull gut). Same value as the above item.
Greedy Fist - Another item that adds to any other armour save, this is a cheap and personal favourite of mine to add to the bruiser / tyrant as it eats any opposing magical weapons, and is great for those rare occasions you get into close combat with an ememy mage! An absolute must.
Talismans
Cathayan Jet - Handy to take to protect a lone character (hunters come to mind) vs shooty armies / magicky armies. Still an option for taking vs DE & HE shooty lists.
Spangleshard - A very handy item to take, one of my favourites in the list.
Wyrdstone Necklace - Another handy item, a cheap ward save for the possibility of one wound on the character at the start of the battle. A must have.
Gnoblar Thiefstone - A great cheap way to add dispel dice to your army. Put a character with these in a highly targeted unit (big unit of bulls for example) and watch the spells just roll off them. You can also take from 1-3 of them as one choice (still have to pay for each stone) and have up to a whopping MR 3 on the unit! Highly recommended against magicky armies.
Arcane Items
Hellheart - For the points cost, not worth it really.
Grut's Sickle - Good to power those one dice casts with (almost) free power dice. A good item to have.
Halfling Cookbook - Good for anyone casting Toothcracker / Trollguts often (pretty much all ogre players, right?). Cheap and effective.
Bangstick - The only bound item in the list, and you get to shoot through gnoblars that are in the way! Take it! Normally priced bound item.
Skullmantle - Pretty handy for helping to break units, particularly nasty when combined with a war banner.
Enchanted Items
Brahmir Statue - Take this in addition to the skullmantle vs Chaos / Skaven and watch the fun when they make leadership tests against you at -4!
Daemon-Killer Scars - Terror is good!
Greyback Pelt - Very useful for hunters, and also prevents you from using yhetees. A very good item.
Jade Lion - Useful until your unit flees, not worthwhile for the price.
Rock Eye - Handy against Night Gobbo's, Skaven and Dark Elves especially, but also useful for revealing enemy magical items in the unit. Not bad, well priced.
Fistful of Laurels - Not very useful, despite it's low cost.
Magic Standards
Dragonhide - If the dice gods are against you, this would be a handy banner to take. Immunity to Ice magic is almost irrelevant though. A bit pricey, mediocre value.
Ragbanner - Roll 3d6 for panic checks for the unit. Well priced and a great pick as most ogre units tend to get shot up pretty badly on their way into close combat.
Cannibal Totem - Only useful against other ogre sized models. Useful against all ogre / all minotaur beasts of chaos armies.
Bull Standard - Handy for any gut plate bearing unit, nice and cheap choice as well.
Rune Maw - Use this banner on a big unit without a character with thiefstones in it. then, when the unit is targeted, deflect it onto a unit with the character with theifstones and have fun dispelling! A favourite tactic of mine.
Big Names
What's in a name? A lot if you're an ogre. It tells of your achievements and the more glorious and impressive your name sounds, the more respect and influence you will have. Not only this, but in game terms, adding a big name to an ogre adds an edge to your tyrant / bruiser as well.
Some key reminders; only tyrants can take big names worth more than 25 pts, only tyrants, bruisers and some hunters may take them at all, they count towards your magical item limit and you can only take one per character. So with that out of the way, let's look at them a little closer:
Kineater - Very good for adding to a central unit, great with the ragbanner too.
Mountaineater - Very handy actually, good to use with the spangleshard too.
Longstrider - A great one to take for hunters and their kitties.
Giantbreaker - Fielding a giant? You have to take this name! Too cheap and absolutely awesome.
Deathcheater - One of my personal favourites, now you hit me, now you don't! Nice and cheap too.
Beastkiller - Handy to take against terror causing foes and VC armies that are banshee heavy. Also great against any large monsters. I'd probably be more inclined to give this to a hunter rather than a tyrant.
Wallcrusher - An obvious combination with the Bull Gut. Even bruisers can make this combo work well.
Mawseeker - Despite the stupidity, an awesome grab and too cheap to pass up if you have a name spare and a few points to kill. I'd lean towards giving this to a tyrant due to his higher leadership.
Gut Magic
Magic that depends on eating various types of foods for their effects is going to be volatile, ogre magic is just that. While the array of spells are pretty varied, any miscasts are deadly, and just through simply casting some spells on the list, your butcher / slaughtermaster can sustain a wound.
Also remember that you can have only one 'Remains in Play' spell per unit only, and that you can have more than one remains in play spell per butcher. Also, keep in mind that RiP spells are dispelled on 7+ always regardless of what casting value they were cast on. As a rule also, try to use only one dice per spell to avoid the terrible miscast effects, there are no items that can help you avoid the effects in the ogre items!With that said, let's look at the spells available to ogre generals...
Bloodgruel - The spell that had to be included! Uses are obvious.
Braingobbler - Ideal for scattering low leadership scouts or flyers (skinks and harpies come to mind here) off the table edge. Also handy for targeting at low LD enemies to cause a panic ripple through the ranks.
Bullgorger - Cast on ogres just before entering close combat.
Bonecruncher - quite a good spell to soften up ranks before close combat. Excels against highly armoured, low toughness foes (high elf cavalry comes to mind here).
Toothcracker - One of the two spells you should consider casting on a unit while marching to combat. Also handy for when you're in combat for the stubbornness. Handy to have the halfling cookbook on anyone casting this spell.
Trollguts - Second of the two spells you should cast on a unit while getting to close combat range, this one also afford your unit some more magical protection too in addition to the ever-handy regeneration. Handy to have the halfling cookbook on anyone casting this spell as well.
Deployment & Tactics
Now that you know what the units are capable of and have some ideas on what item combinations to use for your characters, let's take a look at how to best utilise your army's initial deployment and a further look at some strategies you can employ against various styles of armies.
Ranged
Armies such as dwarves, empire, dark elves, wood elves and high elves can field lists that are able to decimate entire units before they even get to close combat. Use terrain to your advantage and block enemy unit line of sight to you. Spells such as trollguts and toothcracker will be great to help you weather the incoming torrent of enemy fire.
Units to consider: Gnoblar trappers (scouting skirmishers to get behind the line of fire), maneaters(higher toughness - harder to wound), gorgers (as maneaters & get behind enemy lines), leadbelchers (shoot when in range), yhetees (quick movement to get into CC, ignore terrain).
Magic Heavy
Armies in mind: High Elves, Lizardmen with Slanns, Tzeentch Chaos.
When deploying, again block line of sight from any opposing magicians if possible with terrain. Ensure that your butchers have dispel scrolls handy and have them cast trollguts on as many units as possible. The Thiefstone and Rune Maw combination is particularly effective vs magic heavy armies. If your opponent is fond of leaving magicians out of a unit, send your gnoblar trapper to throw sharp stuff at them or send your gorgers against them.
Units to consider: Gnoblar trappers & gorgers.
Items to consider: Rune Maw, 3 Gnoblar Thiefstones, Greatskull (in unit with theifstones), dispel scrolls, trollguts on as many units as possible.
Cavalry Based
Example cav armies: Brettonians, High Elves, Chaos.
Have maneaters and large bull units that are able to bear the brunt of an enemy charge supported by smaller flanking units to their left or right, ready to counter charge. Position scouts and any early arriving gorgers somewhere they can march block the enemy to deny their faster movement. Also, when receiving a charge, have your ogres challenge any other unit champions / heroes to get their champions out of the picture, and hopefully some overkill in your favour.If your opponent has clumped their units around one central unit, try and get any trappers behind the central unit to march block as many units as possible. If done properly, you should be able to march block most of the army, and even get charges of your own in without resorting to baiting (below)!
An alternative tactic I've worked out against cavalry forces is the bait and charge. Put a small unit of bulls slightly forward to a larger unit of bulls. Make sure that they are all a little forward from their starting positions though so that they don't flee off the table when you flee. On turn 2-3, cav units should charge, now make sure that you're over half of their move distance away before hand and declare a flee recation. Provided your rolling isn't too bad (no snake-eyes here) then your bait unit should be away from the chargers and you should also be able to counter charge with the bigger unit of bulls on th next turn, thus negating any of the cavalry unit's charge bonuses! Yhetees are also good as bait due to their 3d6 flee, as are hunters with the longstrider big name (also flee 3d6).
Units to consider: Gnoblar Trappers, Gorgers to march block; maneaters to take a charge, lots of bulls to bait and countercharge cavalry units; yhetees ad hunters (as bait).
Close Combat Specialists
Example close combat armies: Orcs only, Chaos, Lizardmen saurus armies.
This is the most simple of all really, just line up which unit is to fight against which enemy units and once again have smaller flanking units on hand to break the larger enemy units. The simplest way to do this is to march flankers (eg small bull units, yhetees, leadbelchers, etc) slightly forward of larger bull units and have them charge in simultaneously with the large unit, thereby negating enemy rank bonus and causing panic checks due to the charge in the flank as well.
Units to consider: Lots of bull ogres, ironguts, maneaters, yhetees.
Items to consider: War Banner, Bull Standard, Bull Gut.
Horde Armies
Example armies: Skaven, Goblins only, Empire infantry based.Very similar to close combat armies tactics outlined above, but use their lower leadership to your advantage as well. Target them with as many bound items, braingobbler / bonecruncher spells as possible. Also, concentrate this fire on one unit that's close to other units to force 'panic check waves' among their ranks.
Units to consider: Scraplauncher, gnoblar trappers, gorgers.
Items to consider: Grut's hook, Bangstick, Halfling Cookbook.Spells of choice: Toothcracker & Braingobbler.
Mix of Units
Example armies: Dark Elves, Orc & Goblin combined lists, Lizardmen, Chaos.
Well balanced armies can be countered by unbalanced armies. Seeing that you're an ogre general (or tyrant), you have one real option, and that is to go close combat heavy. So bring as many units of bulls as possible to bear, and don't forget your smaller flankers which can be used in this scenario to take out small opposing units as well.
Units to consider: Lots of bulls ogres & ironguts. Balance of Butchers and Bruisers.
Skinning Guide
Now that you know how to use these brutes, and make your opponents cry, I suppose making them look good should be something that we need to consider.
Ogres
The bulk of any real ogre army will be (no surprises here) ogres. First, let's look at skin tones.
Basic - Undercoat them in white, codex grey their skin and apply a quick brush in bleached bone.
Clothing - earthy colours likes browns or dark reds would do well, even black or dark greys work well.
Warpaint / tattoos - Using red, blue, white or black, this is a great opportunity to make your clan stand out. Some examples on what to do:
Basic - full face paint in one color or even half face paint schemes are easy and quick to do if you're painting in a hurry. For the body, consider 'slashes' as quick options to decorate your ogre.
Intermediate - Spirals, jagged ogre clan motifs and other weird shape motifs (especially if you have made them up yourself) would take a little more time to do, but would also make your ogres more unique too.
Advanced - Take a look at some Maori designs and paint / paint-pen them on shoulders, backs or down the arms. While intricate, they can really make your models stand out.
Gnoblars
Get your batch painting technique ready, these guys come in lots of 24! Let's look at their skin first.
Basic - Spray them black, slap on some commando khaki.
Intermediate - Spray them black, then paint over with dark angels green, dry brush commando khaki (twice) and highlights with codex Grey.
Clothing - If you're in a hurry, bestial brown with a chestnut ink wask. If you have time, make the clothes as varied and colourful as you can, these guys forage / steal anything that's not nailed down, they wouldn't know what uniform means!
Yhetees
These guys are pretty straight forward really. How I am doing them is, spray them white and then ink the whole thing in blue ink. Then, brush bleached bone and highlight with skull white. For the greyback, I also apple a light brush of chain mail to the fur on his back to give the illusion of silvery-grey hairs on the leader's back.
maybe this will give you a few ideas. There also a new maneater unit that's a ninja. but it's not listed above.
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