| Description: Ogre Kingdoms |
Many thanks to Lord Calsius for this article.
In this overview I will be going through every unit in the ogre kingdoms army, giving you their advantages and disadvantages, and any other useful info.
Tyrants and Bruisers
Tyrants and bruisers are the combat characters of the ogre army list. Both are very difficult to kill, with high wounds and toughness. They have access to a good selection of mundane weapons, as well as the common and army specific magic items. Considering their size, they have only an average leadership, quite surprising for something twice as tall as any empire soldier. They are powerful in close combat with strength and number of attacks but struggle to compete with other races on the weapon skill side of things. Tyrants are best leading your most powerful regiments, being either maneaters or ironguts most of the time. Bruisers are better off helping the weaker units like bulls keep up their combat resolution score.
Slaughtermasters and Butchers
These are the spell casters of the ogre army. They have all six spells from the lore of gut magic, and these spells are great for enhancing the combat abilities of your ogres etc. as well as causing panic in the enemy and causing destruction to them in the form of magic missiles. However, An butcher may use no more than 2 dice on any one of these spells, and a slaughter master no more than 3, which means that it is unlikely that they will get through to work properly before being dispelled. Also, they tend to be quite destructive to the casters as well, so I would always recommend having a “halfling cookbook” magic item on your best wizard to ensure he survives his magic phase. They are also pretty good in combat, and so could easily take on the role as a bruiser in a unit of bulls.
Hunter
The hunter is a very useful character for flanking. His harpoon launcher acts as a weaker bolt thrower and if you put him on the flank of an enemy and fire, you should be able to cause some significant damage To help your ogres in combat later on. This ogres’ ability in combat is also useful in taking on fast cavalry. Charge him in there, and he should rip a good few to pieces, and as fast cavalry are usually far away from the general, should break easily. Then you just run them down.
Bulls
There isn’t a great del to say specifically about these guys. For unit size I would recommend taking 6-8 to ensure you aren’t outnumbered at the end of the combat round. They have access to a relatively good selection of weapons to choose from, with the iron fist being the best. You can choose to use it as either a shield or an additional hand weapon in close combat, which means you can choose one to deal with any unit you are faced with. For example, if you are charged by a unit of knights, you would obviously choose the shield option to avoid losing a couple of ogres.
Ironguts
The irongut is supposed to be the elite bodyguards of the tyrants. However, they are exactly the same as bulls, but with great weapons and heavy armour and a slightly better leadership. I do not really recommend using them to guard the tyrant, as maneaters are much better for the job. Their great weapons do make them highly useful when in combat though, and the extra strength provided by these weapons is a useful thing to have and could make use of to threaten enemy units. Nobody should ever want to get into charge range of a unit of ironguts, as they are powerful with their great weapons. If they didn’t have them though they would be useless.
Gnoblar Fighters
Unbelievably, the gnoblar, though four times shorter than an ogre, can be used as a screen. They are only two points, so taking a big unit to screen most of your army will be affordable. Also, if they panic for whatever reason and flee, the ogres will not be affected! Should the gnoblars be lucky enough to actually get through all that without running, they can throw their “sharp stuff” 20 or so of these being thrown at any unit would cause some casualties, and then the gnoblars would be cut down in combat. One problem is that if the gnoblars act as a screen they can slow down the entire ogre advance, leaving them vulnerable to missile fire for longer than is wanted. Also, if they actually don’t run, then you also then have to keep your ogres well back to make sure the enemy don’t overrun into them and get the first round of combat.
Gnoblar Trappers
Gnoblar trappers are skirmisher scouts in the ogre kingdoms army. With this ability they can be used to slow the advance of the enemy and protect the flanks of the ogre regiments. They are best used in units of eight to twelve so that as many as possible can attack and kill enemy artillery crews.
Gnoblar Scraplauncher
The Scraplauncher is the ogre kingdoms chariot and artillery piece. To all intents and purposes a stone thrower on a chariot though it is only better. Instead of a small template, it is a large one! However, the hits are weaker and allow armour saves, but have the killing blow special rule, which makes them fantastic against multi-wounded models. The fact that it is also a chariot means that it can also fair well in combat and isn’t as vulnerable to scouts and the like as before, and has a powerful charge that can cause significant damage. It is definitely worth getting, its flexibility as a shooting and combat unit make it an extremely useful machine on any field.
Maneaters
Maneaters are the most powerful troops in the army. They have access to the same collection of weapons as the tyrants and bruisers and are also in possession of better armour. This combination makes them lethal warriors and in a big unit of six or eight charging can destroy almost anything without worry. They have no access to a command group, so combat resolution may be a problem with no standard, but a battle standard bearer can make up for this as well as providing more powerful attacks!
Gorgers
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Leadbelchers
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Yhetees
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