WHFB: Ogre Kingdoms Review Conclusion

Hola amigos, ready to put this one to bed?

Now that all the elements of the army book have been looked at individually, let’s take a step back and look at the army as a whole and how it plays from a competitive standpoint.

Their main strength is the toughness and combat ability of the army.  They are high toughness and multi-wound monsters, which makes them difficult to kill from shooting and combat.  And they hit ferociously hard, especially if they get the charge off.  So any list that is looking to maximize Ogres needs to focus on their strengths, as opposed to being too fancy with shooting units. 

I always say that you need to have a plan for how your list will win the game, and the Ogre plan is close combat backed up with defensive magic.  The Lore of Great Maw adds sick defense on top of an already tough army: this is what you need to capitalize on in a straightforward list.  If your “how will I win” plan veers too far from close combat and defensive magic, I think your list will begin to struggle.

The big weakness of the army is Initiative.  Between low Initiative and Great Weapons abounding, the army is slow in combat, and vulnerable to Initiative tests.  Luckily, there are many ways built into the book to work around this.  I would highly suggest you consider at LEAST one Thundertusk and it’s gamebreaking ASL bubble to even the combat odds against high initiative opponents.  Additionally, the ability to inflict impact hits heavily mitigates the low initiative.  The ability to get impact hits off, rather than being the one getting charged has a lot to do with generalship and maneuver, but remember there are items that make your charge further and move faster.  Those things will enable you to be the charger rather than chargee.  Use them. 

Your units are big, even with only 6 models, meaning they are vulnerable to warmachines, magical template attacks, and characteristic tests (like Initiative).  It is crucially important that you bring multiple casters so that you always have a chance to dispel.  One Pit of Shades or Purple Sun could do serious damage and you need to be set to prevent this.

So with that said, here is a sample list I would consider competitive out of the gate.  I certainly wouldn’t want to play against it with Dark Elves.  I’m not saying this is the best list possible, it surely isn’t, but it’s a good starting point.  It does the things that a good Ogre list should do and minimizes the weaknesses as much as possible.

Ogres 2,500

 Slaughtermaster

- L4

-Ironfist

-Ironcurse Icon

=293

 Bruiser

-BSB

-Crown of Command

-Sword of Striking

-Iron Fist

-Heavy Armor

=188

Butcher

-L2

-Iron Fist

-Dispel Scroll

=163

7x Ogres

-Iron Fists

-Musician

-Standard

=244

7x Ogres

-Iron Fists

-Musician

-Standard

=244

 7x Ironguts

-Musician

-Standard

-Standard of Discipline

=336

2x Mournfang Cavalry

-Greatweapons

-Heavy Armor

=146

2x Mournfang Cavalry

-Greatweapons

-Heavy Armor

=146

2x Mournfang Cavalry

-Greatweapons

-Heavy Armor

=146

Gourger

=90

Thundertusk

=250

Thundertusk

=250

Total: 2,496

Basically, the list tries to get key Great Maw spells off, hit insanely hard with combo charges of Ogres and Mournfangs, and keep everything within an ASL bubble so your opponents are brought down to your level.  It has a Gourger to ambush targets of opportunity and to keep your opponent from playing keep away.

Thoughts?