Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Ogre Circus: Ogre Star!



I think we might be transitioning to this later time for posting- getting the posts ready by noon just ain't happening nowadays.

Earlier I talked about my thoughts for the 1500 part of my Fantasy escalation league. Here's the list that I ended up with:

Tyrant, Sword of Battle, Heavy Armor, Wyrdstone Necklace, Iron Curse Icon

Butcher, Talisman of Preservation
Bruiser *, BSB, Runemaw, Hvy Armor, Look Out Gnoblar, Cathayan Longsword

9 Bulls, Ironfists, Bellower
6 Ironguts, Standard Bearer
20 Gnoblars

Scraplauncher

*The FAQ has errataed that the BSB can have standard upgrades, just no other magical items.

Basically the heroes and Tyrant joined with the 9 bulls to form an Ogre deathstar. I know, I know, deathstars were last edition, but it seemed like the best plan at this points level and with the models I had. Plus it is fairly magic proof thanks to the Runemaw and nearby Gnoblar squads.

I only got to get one game in on Sunday and it was against O&G. He had a large mob of Night Goblins, a mob of Black Orcs (I think), some Arrer Boyz, a pump wagon and a rock lobba. We rolled up Battle for the Pass and went at it.

 The game was mostly one of me charging and him running away. My Scrappie was on fire, smashing orcs and goblins to pieces. His rock lobba was more unlucky, killing one whole Ogre Bull over the course of the game before mishapping into a self destruct. After about 4 turns of maneuvering I finally got my chance to smash into his block of night gobbies, mowing them down over two turns. The only unit I lost were the 20 gnoblars, which was equal points to the pumpwagon that he lost to his own fanatic.

So, a very lucky game for me, but it showed off some of the strengths and weaknesses of my army.

  • The deathstar was unassailable, having regeneration and magic protection up for most of the game. 
  • The scrappie was golden, doing plenty of damage over the course of the game while hanging out in the back end of the table.
  • Gnoblars were worthless in combat, but great for shunting enemy spells and serving as charge bait
  • On the flip side, my deathstar was fairly easy to bait and flee. If the terrain had been a bit more forgiving I could have gotten my Ironguts into melee as well, but as it was my Ogrestar wandered around unsupported.
For expanding to 2k I'd like to have two hard hitting blocks of Ogre Bulls. That, plus a few blocks of gnoblars and the Ironguts backed by a pair of Scrappies should lead to a good, balanced force.

Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow.

3 comments:

Ben said...

Seems like the Ironguts might benefit from the flaming banner (whatever it's called) as long as they're taking a Standard Bearer anyway. It's only 10 points, and makes them amazing against the Life magic basic spell and anything with innate Regeneration. If you're going to hit last in order to hit hard, might as well make sure that those hits will stick.

Also, have Gorgers not worked out for you? They seem pretty handy for getting into the back-field and causing havoc at a reasonable cost.

With the Tyrant, what do you think of the Greatskull at 2000? If you end up putting him in one unit, and the Butcher/Bruiser in another, you could cause problems for anyone casting a spell at either Bull block. If you don't take that, the Enchanted Shield might be worth a look. 5 points is pretty good for +2 armor save. Or if you get hit by a lot of cannonballs, the Charmed Shield will take the first one for you and give +1 armor.

Max said...

Flaming banner- considered it, but ended up not having the points to make it. I probably could have worked around it, but my local metagame doesn't have anyone who regularly uses Life magic... yet, anyway.

Gorgers- one just didn't seem like enough. If I field them at this points level it will be as a pair. I decided that more bodies and a scrappie were worth more than a gorger.

Tyrant- greatskull is great and I will probably go for it at 2k. Put him in one squad and the runemaw in the other will be great for magic protection. I hadn't thought about charmed shield and it's effect vs. cannonballs- will have to think about that one, as it's only what, 5 pts?

Thanks for commenting!

Ben said...

Yep, just 5 points - it's a nice little item if you're worried about fluke cannonball hits getting through your Look Out, Sir!.

I would definitely endorse a pair of Gorgers - that just seems like it could get really obnoxious to someone's warmachine park for a mere 150 points. And as a Wood Elf player, I'm not a huge far of T5, 4 attack monsters showing up right behind my archers as they frantically try to shoot down the Ogres running their way.

What was your thinking on magic at 2000? I could see either relying on the Greatskull and Runemaw for defense, or cutting the Tyrant's items down to a minimum and squeezing in a Slaughtermaster for the extra range and +4 casting/dispelling bonus.