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TMS

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Nov 26, 2008
4,662
Sweden
Hello,

This thread is for archiving the various tips, builds and strategies that can be of use when fighting the Ogre Kingdoms. This first post will periodically be updated to include the input that has been given in the thread. The categorization is the same as with the earlier threads,

Effective Tactics / Units to Use

Tactics / Units Not Recommended to Use

Enemy Items / Units / Tactics to Watch Out For

[mod]Note that this is not the place for in-depth discussion in regards to the advice that is shared. If you wish to debate on any specific topic, you're free to start up an independent thread in the main section of The Teachings of Abhorash instead.[/mod]

Thank you. :)
 

Johnny-Crass

Vampire Ancient
True Blood
Jan 25, 2012
6,633
California
Much has changed with the new Ogre book. They no longer need a tyrant, have cannons, have the second best chaff in the game, have mournfang and have one of the most deadly arcane items out there.

So lets start from the top.

Lords
No body really take a tyrant anymore as he is not requuired like he used to be. High LD does not make up for high price and thus he gets the axe in most lists. On the other hand the Slaughter Master is decently costed can choose between a few good lores and lore of beasts; and has combat potential.

Heros
Bruiser BSB is a must. Normally runs defensive kit and hides in the second rank
Butcher is needed if the slaughter master is not taking the army lore.
Firebellys are just plain brutal, mages with a breathweapon and flaming attacks? Yes please
Hunters? What's a Hunter?

Core
Now there are three core choices these days. We got your Bulls, Your Iron Guts and your Gnoblars

Bulls. In my opinion they are overcosted for no damage output and will struggle against most combat troops.

Ironguts. Brilliant with a touch of amazing. 3 S6 attacks a piece LD8 and the ability to take a magic banner makes them a must.

Gnoblar darts are useful with the trapper upgrade.

More to come
 

Ravenheart

Grave Guard
Aug 21, 2013
221
Purple sun and pit of shades ruin their day. Pit of shades is the safer bet (no chance to misfire killing your own troops/vamp/necromancer).
 

Corien Sumatris

Vampire Count
True Blood
Jul 3, 2013
1,535
Rockford Il
But P-Sun is soo good! Ugh it can wreck an entire army with what ... 7 dice rolls! 6 to cast and 1 artillery that rolls well. Their entire freakin army is hurting pretty good after that.
 

Ravenheart

Grave Guard
Aug 21, 2013
221
I have fear of artillery dice. My trebuchets always blow themselves up turn 1 and my master necromancer has imploded from purple sun every time I've cast it. People at my club don't bother stopping it anymore lol.
 

Mox

Ghoul
Jan 25, 2012
147
I would be interested in some more points on weaknesses of OK here.
 
Oct 2, 2014
34
Ogres have a very low Initiative and LD.

Purple sun, pit of shades, Konrad, terrorgheist, Crypt ghouls (Ini 3, poison), banshee, spirit hosts can tie up units that don't involve a character such as the mournfang.
Hexwraiths cause of their ethereal and soulstrider on Ogres works well too. Ghoul king + scabscrath.

I don't think VC would struggle at all with Ogres. I wouldn't bring a ME though. Ironblasters will aim at it and cause it to explode whilest it is likely amongst your own troops. Tgheist is likely to draw some heat from it too. But thats to be expected. I lost my fully healed Tgheist once cause of a lucky multiwound (D6) C'ball.

Going magic heavy is also not suggested. Everyone knows that VC rely on their magic and ogres have the hellheart wich will make every wizard in your army roll a miscast. Having your army being wiped of the board by miscasts like this can be devastating.
Hellheart + miscast double roll from ME doesn't count here I believe however.

You don't have to be concerned about their magic phase either. Its really not that special cause they always need to pay a 'tax' where 1 of their wizards MUST pick their lore. Unlike our LoV it doesn't have to be the highest wizard or the one with highest LD. So they need to include a butcher thats most likely wasted points whenever they do.

Apart from that Lore of the great maw is full of augments meant to make ogres stronger.
These 2 spells are probably the better ones for ogres.

Spinemarrow : gives a unit stubborn (signature spell, cast on 8+)
Trollguts : Give the unit regeneration. (wich is 4+ if not stated otherwise according to the rulebook, cast on 12+)

The maw (last spell) is gimicky and can be devastating but very very random. If misfired the enemy may position it elsewhere, even amongst ogres.

Lore attribute : when a spell from this lore is resolved. The wizard rolls a D6. On 2-6 he will be able to add +1 to his next cast/dispell attempt. On a 1 he suffers a S6 hit.
 
Last edited:
Oct 2, 2014
34
Standard list of OK nowadays looks alot like this.

Slaughtermaster, glittering scales + fencers + lore of the maw

Bruiser BSB, banner of rune maw. on a 2+, enemy must target another unit in range for the spell, if not spell is lost.

Irongut-star (core choice) with great weapons (cause why not with low I)

Few Ogres (also called bulls, with a shield they call ironfists)

Mournfang with dragonhide/swiftness/flaming banner and likely great weapons

Ironblaster (or 2. Currently considered to be the best cannon. S10 multiwound D6. Rolls double artilery range dice and picks highest for bounce distance. On double misfire ONLY will it actually misfire)

Leadbelchers (d6 shots/ogre, S4, no penalty for multishot or moving, armour piercing)

Firebelly (level 1-2 lore of fire + flame breath)

Stonehorn (monster)

Maneaters (can pick 2 special rules. most favourite one being sniper/poison attacks to snipe characters in units. Can be scouts too.)

Sabertusk (or 2. Most often used as redirectors)
 
Oct 2, 2014
34
Now personally.

I would suggest strongly to get rid of the ironblaster(s). It costs a mere 170 points.
In my last game it killed a character in a unit of mine (wich failed his LoS on a 1..) AND 1 shot my Tgheist.

Make sure to dispell the nasty spells like spinemarrow or especially trollguts.

Bait mournfang with a host or hexies.

Konrad and Ghoul king with scabscrath in a unit of GG does well against the irongutstar.

Tgheist can shriek into that same combat to thin some ranks. So does a banshee.

Hexwraiths can be your friends here. Let them chase the ironblasters. They don't have magical attacks despite how awesome they are :)
 
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Mr. Cthulhu

Zombie
Aug 6, 2013
36
New York
The hardest things to get through against Ogres is the Hellheart, their base T4 throughout the whole army, Lore of fire for spirits, their AMAZING cannon (DO NOT let flaming sword go off on this, gives cannon magic attacks), and amount of wounds you have to get through before you kill a model. You can do 2 wounds, but you're still getting full attacks in the face and it will hurt. A normal unit for Ogres in core is about 8-10 models...which is around 30 wounds, T4 base, great weapons, and probably has stubborn and regen... Oh, and with the Slaughtermaster and BSB int he unit that's about 24 attacks if they're run 3 wide, almost all at S6, and you can't attack anyone but the champ, Slaughtermaster and BSB.

I know it's not the easiest feat, but kill that slaughtermaster! It will unfortunately get you closer to hellheart, but it's something that has to be done (death will help here, him being 8 base and 9 with a standard of disc). That Irongut star with Slaughtermaster and BSB is well worth at least 1000 points, usually more. Destroy it and you win...and good luck doing so btw...

Source: I used to play Ogres...they are a mean army. :perv:
 
Oct 2, 2014
34
Ogre Kingdoms are alright but quite costy and not that tough to take down for vampires.
Best case scenario Konrad gets 5 attacks, Hits all, wounds all. Red fury kicks in, same thing. Thats 20 wounds done by konrad for you. *bows*
Think I scored a fair 10-15 wounds with him on ogres everytime.
Didn't let the spinemarrow go off so no stubborn for them. They flee, you overrun. Even the slaughtermaster can't do much against that. Nor a BSB.

About the cannon, flaming and magical attacks. Where'd you see that ?
I can't seem to find it in the 8th ed. codex.
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
I played Ogres today. In a lapse of concentration I left my Blender Cowboy out in the open in front of the Ironblaster, and he took a face full of grapeshot on turn 2. BUMS.

My Vargheists performed stunningly, making a 20" charge (triple 6!) into the back of a Stonehorn, killing the Hunter before he even had a chance to attack back. After the Lord went down the supporting hexwraiths took some heavy hits, out of 2x5 I was left only with 2, but they announced a charge into the rear of the damn Ironblaster which tried to flee and got run down like the mongrel that he is. My Lord was avenged!

The biggest threat by far was the Gutstar horde. I did well to begin with, the 6 Crypt Horrors holding out impressively, then when the Screaming Banner skeletons (led by a Cairn Wraith) charged them, they had to take a fear test on 3 dice and failed, meaning all of them had WS1, saving me a lot of wounds. The second turn of combat saw him pass his fear test and that's really when it all went to pot, pretty much wiping out my skeletons leaving just the Death Necro and the Cairn Wraith alive, meaning no more forcing a fear test on 3 dice.

Screams from the Mortis Engine were ineffective, but the 4+ regen on my Crypt Horrors made them hold out that much longer.

Forcing Fear-causing core infantry to take fear tests was amazing when it worked but aside of that the Cairn Wraiths (I had two, one in each skelly unit) didn't seem that effective.

Just no idea how to handle huge hordes like that in general... Shadow's Miasma might have helped possibly... He had two characters with magic weapons in so had good protection again ethereal units (so no just holding them up with some spirit hosts).
 
Oct 2, 2014
34
Gutstar block is nasty but a purple sun will kill it, even if they have the rune maw banner. Cause the purple sun is not directed at a unit so the rune maw's effect doesn't kick in.

Ogres suffer even more from these spells than undead I've noticed.

Last time I faced that unit I had konrad with some GG fighting them. They smashed them.
My sole Tgheist was screaming at them aswell.
They do hit hard but that been said will likely be hitting last aswell cause I've always seen people equip them with great weapons. And we've got IoN to summon more GG from the grave.
If you don't play characters, a strigoi with scabscrath & curse of the revenant works well too. I'm more of a VL fan myself but this guy is quite decent against them.

And yeh, that ironblaster is nasty.
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
No way you can rely on rolling Purple Sun. At maximum I'm either taking a Lvl2 Death or Shadow wizard outside of my Vamp lore casters. Plus Purple Sun is cheesier than a Terrorgheist, and whilst I love cheese IRL, I tend to avoid it on the wargames table.
 

estwheadn

Black Knight
Jun 4, 2014
301
Purple sun is only good if it goes off which is rare. Since you need to get the roll, then not be dispelled (either by scroll or dice), then not roll a misfire, then roll a high enough number so the purple sun actually hits a unit. But if it does work then you are set for that magic phase. I just play against ogres with a lvl 4 death necro and it is tough. A slaughter master usually has +1 to his dispell roll so unless you are rocking mortis engines he has a better bonus than you. Also you really only have one chance to cast it because unless you roll an 8 or a 10 there is no way you are hitting the ogres more than once before they charge you.

Also I used konrad in that game as well and I will never bring him again! First of all he was cannon sniped turn 1. Then after the game just fooling around my opponent let me bring back konrad and although he did 6 wounds against the ogres he was just murdered on the return attacks. Also in my store they ruled that two multiple wound(2) unsaved wounds only kills 1 ogre and does not put a wound on the other one.
 

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