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Hey guys, I want to start a fantasy army and have narrowed my choices down to dwarfs, wood elves or ogres. I really like the models and the lore of these armies and not too bothered that wood elves are such an old army. Can someone give their opinions on playing with or against these armies. I've been doing a lot of research on the armies but can see myself playing each one anyways.

I play space wolves and lotr wood elves and dwarves if this information helps.

thanks in advance

Well, play what interests you, but here are my thoughts on the armies you are looking at.

Dwarves: Fun, but a bit one-dimensional. Only have two unit types (Warmachines and Infantry), so are a bit lacking in variety. Also, their best list is a gunline, which is boring both to play and face.

Wood elves: Really old book, which suffers under 8th ed. rules. I understand that some good players can still do well with them, but they are really tricky.

Ogres: Probably the best book in fantasy right now (don't worry; it's not Space Wolf Over-powered). Most of the stuff is usable, and there is a fair bit of variety. High speed on almost everything means that you play the maneuvering game well, while multiple wounds and lots of attacks means you are good at beating face.

Ogres arn't the best book. One of the top 5 for sure, but not the best. Not as long as the uber 6th spells exist for which Ogres have no real counter for.


That said, Ogre playstyle.

First off, there are a few things we are not.

Ogres are NOT a "Hurrr HULK SMASH!!!" army. You don't just run up and punch the opposing army in the face, thats how Ogres lose. if this is winning you games, your opponents are complete failures.


We are the only army made out of almost entirely Monstrous units. Monstrous Infantry, Monstrous Cavelry, and Monsters. Its what we do.

Ogres rely on combat to win, although they can have some decent shooting.

Due to our high speed and some of the best chaff in the game(Sabretusks) we can dominate the movement phase. This is why Ogres are a real strong army book.

So back to how Ogres arn't a run up and beat your face army. Ogres are a finess army. You use our superior movement to position our units perfectly so we can get a devestating charge off, and then beat your face and have it for lunch. And meanwhile our Sabretusks are helping this happen while also being downright annoying to the enemy. preventing good charges, pulling frenzied units out of position, etc...


Ogres are a fun army to play, and I am told fun to play against. I have yet to play against Ogres myself, but I do play them.

The fluff is amazing and characterful.

The units in the army really reflect the fluff.


There are only a couple bad units, as in taking them will make your army worse.

Yhetees: GW could have made them awsome in the update, instead they totally fumbled the ball and made them complete turds.

Hunter: The hunter was lame last book and he's more of the same in this one. Just like with the Yhetees, GW dropped the ball.

Bragg the Gutsman: Awsome fluff for a special character and a kickass model. But his rules are complete doodoo. You pay twice the cost of a normal Bruiser for the gain of a +1Str magic weapon that gives HKB but only in challanges. Complete garbage.

Greasus Goldtooth: Same character from old book, same lameness.

Golfag Maneater: Unlike the above 2 characters, Golfag can work. But you need to build a list around him and even then he's just kinda meh.

Scragg the Slaughterer: So this guy is actually ok, but like Golfag you have to build a list around him. Decent, but not the most competitive choice.


Everything else in the book is good to frakkin awsome.

Plus we have the best model in the world. I present the Stonehorn,

I personally dislike playing dwarves and ogres. But that is just because every game against ogres, in my experience, is the same. Gutstar, double mournfang and ironblasters. As for dwarves, same problem, except they sit in the corner and shoot. As such, I personally want to recommend Wood elves.

BUT, in the end it comes down to one thing, which army you prefer OP. I could say, OGRES ARE THE BEST ARMY EVER! and you could prefer dwarves, for instance, and get stuck with an army you don't fully enjoy.

Lol thanks for your thoughts. Very helpful. What army is generally most rounded with good combat and shooting and a bit of magic? I heard cavalry got nerfed in 8th, so how reliable is it?

I did play Dwarves, and also found them to be a little one dimensional and boring, so I quit. Just wanted to share that, since I too found their fluff interesting and love the flavor of the army, but that was where the enjoyment ended.

I've played dwarfs for years but never a gunline, or with an anvil, so bear that in mind. I agree they have limited options but I still love them after all these years because of their fluff and because their across the board stats mean that you can never count them out in combat which I find can make for some good drama in games. You will always be outnumbered and outmaneuvered, but more importantly you have no units with more than 1 attack and no way to buff any of your units, so you have to use some planning and try to pick your fights, concentrate your shooting where it is needed, and trust in the dwarfs' resilience! For all these reasons I think they are a very rewarding army to play with. Basically what I'm getting at is I love the fluff and the army is actually capable of playing like the fluff on the table.

I have just started playing wood elves though and so far yes they are a challenge but I don't think they get as raw a deal in 8th as people say. A few units and items are pretty useless, and you don't get much choice in the magic department, but the majority are still fun. The main obstacle to them being a really competitive army is steadfast , they have only 3 combat units capable of counting as having even 1 rank in combat eternal guard, wild riders, treekin. So they can also be a bit one dimensional but for the same reasons can be rewarding. Also with wood elves, there probably aren't many other people down at the flgs playing them, which you can't say for ogres.

I have played against ogres a few times, but mostly of the 2 mournfang and 2 cannon variety, so although I'm sure they are probably more tactically flexible than the other two I haven't seen it for myself!

What also hurts ogres are the new spells in 8th that are pass or die. What is worse is most of these spells are initiative based and Ogres are sporting a low 2. The bases are larger so the template should hit less or less models in the unit to take. Sure it sucks to lose 6-10pt dwarfs but sucks more to lose 4-43pt ironguts. But they are fun and competitive, some cheesy rules such as casters that can take magic armor, parry saves on cavalry but if you played pre the new book you earned all that cheese.

Thank you for all the advice guys. I've decided to play wood elves. Any advice on army building? I want to make a 750-1000 pt army. I plan on getting the battalion box, how would I kit them out? glade riders-> wild riders? how many glade guard would be good to run in a unit? 20-30 per tray seems to be the consensus, what is best for low point games? Not so much looking to win as to just have fun, but i don't want an army that loses repeatedly.