Thursday, October 6, 2011

WHFB: Ogre Kingdoms Review Part 7

Lords and Heroes.  Let's do this, shall we?  I'm not going to cover special characters because I don't care for them in my games, they don't interest me.  Either they are strictly better than the normal choices, like Teclis, or they are completely unusably over priced.  So I just ignore them.


-Lords and Heroes-

Tyrant:  The big guy.  His stat line is definitely fighty, he is a match for a Chaos Lord.  And much like a Chaos Lord, he is completely useless in competitive lists.  The reason is you simply cannot spend 275+ points on a character and equipment that won't influence the game until Turn 3.  The only other time to bring a fighty Lord is for leadership qualities, but that only works in armies like Empire and Skaven where your fighty-lords are dirt cheap.  For you fluff balls (I kid, I kid) ignore this and tool him out with ridiculous equipment like the Sword of Swift Slaying and go to town.

Slaughtermaster: 285 points for a naked Level 4 caster is about on par for other army books, except this guy gets a decent combat stat line.  Not bad.  My advice is to not be tempted to tool him for combat to make an "all arounder" Lord choice.  This guy is the Grey Knights Librarian of the Ogre Army.  His Gut Magic buffs are vitally important to the success of your Ogre Force, and you need to gear him as such.  Please see my magic item review and user comments for how best to do that.  It goes without saying that in any army of 2k or higher, this is an obligatory choice.

Bruiser: Much like the Chaos Exalted Champ and Lord, the Bruiser is the cost effective fighty character.  This guy should be carrying a Battle Standard unless you have a fantastic reason for him not to be, and he should have the Crown of Command in every case, unless you're going to put him into a unit that will already have Stubborn.  If you plan on your Slaughtermaster to reliably casting Regeneration on his unit, the Dragonhelm is a nice, cheap magic item to give him.  With Heavy Armor, Iron Fist, and Dragon Helm, he will have a 3+ armor, 4++ regen, and 2++ ward vs Flaming.  Not bad defense for your Stubborn BSB.

Hunter: A couple reasons to bring him: you want to mount a fighty character on a Stonehorn to make a uber tough deathstar point sink; you think a Sabretusk deathstar is a cool idea; you want a cheaper fighty character with cooler equipment options than the Bruiser gets and don't need a BSB in your army. 

Butcher: Look at the stat line your L2 gets for 135 points!  That's a steal.  I would almost always take one in order to ensure my L4 gets the spells her wants.  Easy choice.

Firebellies:  A pretty crap unit.  Seriously, you don't see many people in tournaments with Fire Magic, with good reason.  All the Lores have offensive spells.  The others, though, add some utility.  Fire doesn't.  Unless you are a fluff bunny or really need a breath weapon in your army for some reason, steer clear.

-Summary-

Ogres have some cool choices here.  The Hunter and Firebelly are both OK and garbage respectively from a competitive standpoint, but they have a cool factor that will get them both played.  The Bruiser and Butcher are both strong choices with stat lines that are superior for their points costs, plus they bring value to your force by being BSB and a wizard respectively.  The Slaughtermaster is just hands down great.  I compared him to the GK Librarian in terms of the utility he brings to your army, but he is actually better than that.  The GK Libby is hard to use effectively without a Land Raider or big Termie unit, whereas nearly ever Ogre Army should use a Slaughtermaster.  The Tyrant is a losing proposition.  If you want an insanely expensive bad ass beater, bring a Hunter on Stonehorn.  If you want a value choice, bring a Bruiser or Hunter.  The Tyrant really doesn't have a great purpose.


3 comments:

  1. Heh, funny that I use both a Firebelly and a Hunter in my army.

    I run my Hunter with a Sword of Striking, so his four attacks usually hit on a 2+, and an enchanted shield for a 3+ armor save. He's pretty durable, and hits very hard (and reliably hits hard), and takes from my hero slots rather than my Rare. This lets me field a Thundertusk and an Ironblaster as well as a Stonehorn.

    I really like the Firebelly in my Ironguts. Since he strikes before my Ironguts, I take out Regen (flaming attacks + breath weapon)before the Ironguts swing into the target. Note he gets 2 hand weapons rather than the modeled Great Weapon. Plus, fulminating flame cage is a great spell (for people who bring horde style units) and Flaming Sword of Rhuin is amazing on guts as well - auto wounding <T4 models is very powerful.

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  2. Don't get me wrong, I like the Hunter. It's a far better buy than the Tyrant. I guess my review comes off negatively, but really I think having a fighty character who is Lord level at the Hero slot is pretty good.

    You still won't convince me that Fire Magic is worth precious power dice compared to Great Maw.

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  3. Fair point about Fire Magic. I barely cast anything with it, really only if my Slaughtermaster is dead or I get Flaming Sword. Which is not often.

    This is the list that I've been using with a fair about of success (I don't think I've lost yet, over about 10 games):

    Slaughtermaster; Lvl 4, Crown of Command, Talisman of Preservation, Extra HW
    Firebelly w/ Lvl2, Extra HW
    Hunter on Stonehorn w/ Sword of Striking, Enchanted Shield
    7 Ironguts w/ Full Command, Banner of Discipline
    7 Bulls w/ FC, Ironfists
    7 Bulls w/ FC, Ironfists
    4 Mournfang Cav w/ Std and Dragonhide Banner
    Thundertusk
    Ironblaster

    Ideally, I'd drop a couple of Bulls and take some single Sabertusks, but that's about all I'd do to fine-tune this list. It works very well from my experience; this is one of my first times using monstrous infantry in 8th, and I'm liking the hitting power quite a bit. It's been a very nice change-up from my failed Tomb Kings attempt; I'm a fairly aggressive player and this army plays to that style.

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