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I was thinking of running a unit of 18 rat ogres with warlord on rat ogre and was wondering has anyone used something similar? Any opinions on how effective/ not effective it could be? In the list I was thinking its a sink of roughly 1000 points which in a 3k games sin't that bad

A wide frenzied death star is pretty easy to redirect/block. IMO, it's too many points.
It's also Ld7, which is a long way from where you want skaven to be.

It will hit really hard (60+ S5 attacks, plus handful of S3), but you're not likely to get the match ups you want.

-Matt

Wouldn't it be Ld 10?

Warlord is 7, plus 3 for ranks since a horde of MI is 6 models wide? (I'm assuming 6 wide, 3 deep.)

Yeah and ld 10 with a bsb nearby will mean I won't be failing many ld tests

Tiarna Fuilteach wrote:Yeah and ld 10 with a bsb nearby will mean I won't be failing many ld tests

Rat Ogres don't have Strength in Numbers. Doesn't matter how many ranks you have.

From the FAQ
Page 104 – Rat Ogres, Special Rules.
Ignore “Strength in Numbers”

-Matt


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, BoneBreaker is Monstrous Cav, not Monstrous Infantry; which means no look out for the warlord.
Looks like you're 1 cannon shot away from having Ld5 frenzied rat ogres tearing off on their own.

-Matt

Packmasters grant "Strength in Numbers" to the Rat Ogres while there is still one alive. If you decide to run an 18 man deathstar, take Throt to make it core and Skweel(?), the special packmaster, to enhance its death star qualities. Make sure to bring a lot of giant rat packs and/or gutter runners to kill their redirecters, and fill out your special with a plague monk block to double the scariness. Don't forget an Abom or two and you're ready to rock!

I played against Ogre Deathstar recently with that special character that boost the unit even more.

Too wide = cant maneuver and easily baited.
Then you get charged at both sides, perhaps even the back.
You'll never do enough damage back from those pincer attacks

You'll lose combat res, and flee due to low LD

Jinkazeal wrote:Packmasters grant "Strength in Numbers" to the Rat Ogres while there is still one alive. If you decide to run an 18 man deathstar, take Throt to make it core and Skweel(?), the special packmaster, to enhance its death star qualities. Make sure to bring a lot of giant rat packs and/or gutter runners to kill their redirecters, and fill out your special with a plague monk block to double the scariness. Don't forget an Abom or two and you're ready to rock!

Where does it say that? I think I may have missed it in the FAQ

HawaiiMatt wrote:

Tiarna Fuilteach wrote:Yeah and ld 10 with a bsb nearby will mean I won't be failing many ld tests

Rat Ogres don't have Strength in Numbers. Doesn't matter how many ranks you have.

From the FAQ
Page 104 – Rat Ogres, Special Rules.
Ignore “Strength in Numbers”

-Matt

True, but the Warlord does have Strength in Numbers and so would get the rank bonus to his LD. You would calculate as per the amount of Rat Ogres, same way you would normally to work out a Packmaster's LD. As per the same FAQ:

Q. The Packmasters’ special rule Running with the Pack and the
special rule Beast Pack seem to contradict each other. How do they
work? (p53)
A. The Packmaster and Master Moulder models are ignored
when working out the unit’s rank bonus, so only ranks of Rat
Ogres count. Use the Packmasters’ or Master Moulders’ Ld
value (or the General’s) as the base Ld for the unit, to which
you then add the Rat Ogres’ rank bonus.

Tiarna Fuilteach wrote:

Jinkazeal wrote:Packmasters grant "Strength in Numbers" to the Rat Ogres while there is still one alive. If you decide to run an 18 man deathstar, take Throt to make it core and Skweel(?), the special packmaster, to enhance its death star qualities. Make sure to bring a lot of giant rat packs and/or gutter runners to kill their redirecters, and fill out your special with a plague monk block to double the scariness. Don't forget an Abom or two and you're ready to rock!

Where does it say that? I think I may have missed it in the FAQ

I believe that's under the Packmaster entry in the Army Book.

We brought this up before. Maybe it was you

It's not impossible or anything, I think the big deal is their LD is so bad, they have to have Packmasters and General and BRB near, and they simply aren't that cost-effective. To "-star" them, you will need to be casting some spells to offer them some protection, as they have absolutely nothing except T4.

They are basically horrible LD Ogres with no armor, that cost more, and are harder to buff. If you went straight up against say, a guttstar, you'd get tore up.

And it makes rat pandas cry to think about 4 ranks of RO basically just being there waiting for the front ranks to die (and to buff LD). That's like 500 points standing there not able to attack. That's awful deep. You can do that with a WoC or other semi-elite infantry because it's only like 1/3 that price. But that's a lot of points that aren't active.

I used a unit more than a year ago when nobody knew how to play 8th, haven't used them since i sold a lot of skaven