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I am wanting to start one of these armies and I want some opinions on how the new army books play. Do you think they are competitive, balanced, fun, ect. I do not want any army list, but effective combos or favorite units would be cool. With High Elves, I'm loving the Loremaster of Hoeth model so I'm thinking him and some SM and probably a WL Chariot because it looks so awesome, so I would love some advice on those three. If I decide to go with WoC, I have to use the Skullcrushers and probably Vilitch the Curseling. As for OK, I really like the Stonehorn. Thanks for your advice!

They are all competitive.


I play Ogres and they are hands down the funnest army to play. With some awesome models to boot. Stonehorn is my favorite too.

Mournfang are some of the best shock cavalry in the game.

Even the basic ogre bulls can trample(literally) the elite of other books. And Ironguts can kill anything.

The Stonehorn does what regular ogres do but better. Its tough to kill and hits like an avalanche.


All units of ogres have the Impact Hits special rule in some form. So they can cause casualties before even the quickest elf has a chance to swing. Mournfangs have even more impact attacks(D3 each), and stonehorns do 3D3 when they charge. Most of our units also do more impact attacks if we roll high enough on the charge distance.

Our magic is centered around buffing our own dudes up. We can get toughness, strength and regeneration on potentially the entire army if they are boosted. 12" bubble regeneration wins games. Heavens and Beasts are also good buff lores. Death is a meh choice, most of the spells are either sub-par for us in particular or downright suicidal to use(Purple Sun is the anti-ogre spell)

How does the Fire belly fair? He has access to the Lore of Fire correct? Ogres do seem much easier to paint, which is good for me since I like converting them much more than painting them all.

I am going to build my army for Triumph & Treachery and was thinking of using Ogres as Mercinaries, probably a Stornhorn as a giant sledgehammer to go along with High Elves. Add some Mournfang Cavalry when the army gets bigger.

Yup, he's got Fire.

Usually you aren't taking him for his spell casting ability. Its for his breath weapon and natural flaming attacks(which can strip annoying regeneration)

You typically roll for his one spell and unless you get Flaming Sword of Ruin you swap it for Fireball, which is a decent offensive spell if you have nothing better to spend the power dice on. Get the last few stragglers of a unit late game for example.

Any idea on how Mournfang compare to Skullcrushers?

More attacks, but lower quality. less durability as well. But they're also much faster IIRC.

For the WoC side, Skullcrushers are borderline broken good. Vilitch is less impressive, as the Lore of Tzeentch is... not good. So you're 50/50 so far on what catches your eye.

As a whole the book is balanced with some elements being arguably OP (Daemon Prince, cough), and only a handful of options being suboptimal (Marauders, Slaughterbrute). There's a lot of ways to build the army while staying reasonably competitive, and a couple ways to build the army to be utterly vicious.

Warriors of Chaos are the current tournament/netlist poster child, though, so be aware of that if you are concerned about such things. Their Skullcrushers are just a total nightmare, and really difficult to deal with; worst of all is that they are so undercosted that it isn't really worth the reward when you finally get rid of them.

Ogres are fun! Most of their units are pretty competitive, and even some of the lackluster ones people would probably kill for.

Maneaters are one of the most customizable in looks and make as well, so if you like modeling they do very well for being modeled up all fancy.

All of them are very competitive right now. I play mostly with HE and they can take on both Ogres and WoC and do well (and vice versa). The He are probably the hardest to play with though as they are the most fragile.

As to your suggestion of using a Loremaster, SMs and WLs, that is certainly a decent combination and has some serious potential. Just remember that you don't have the higher T & W of the Ogres or the Chaos Armor of WoC to protect you.

Thanks alot for the feedback!!

If I were to go with High Elves, is the Island of Blood box set worth the price? I love the SW models but not sure if I'd use any of the other ones.

If I decide WoC, is an all cavalry army effective at all? I was thinking all Khorne Horsemen, Knights, Skullcrushers, Chariots, and Lord on Manticore.

The IoB generally isn't worth it for HE, unless you haven't already got a copy of a mini-rulebook.

A loremaster, Swordmasters and Lion Chariots are the most competitive choices, but they're all still very good.

 The Shadow wrote:
The IoB generally isn't worth it for HE, unless you haven't already got a copy of a mini-rulebook.

A loremaster, Swordmasters and Lion Chariots are the most competitive choices, but they're all still very good.

GW charges £20 for 5 Swordmasters of Hoeth in finecast. At that price if you want 10 that's £40. If you get the Island of Blood box and split it with a Skaven player or simply go on ebay and buy an already split back you can get a High Elf Prince on Griffon, a High Elf Mage, 10 High Elf Lothern Sea Guard, 10 High Elf Sword Masters of Hoeth and 5 Ellyrian Reavers for somewhere around £30. So you save £10 on the swordmasters alone and get some guard, HQ options and reavers (which I also notice are not sold outside of the IoB boxed set).

If you've a local Skaven player or someone wanting to start them you can each buy a box and swap over the respective sprues - leaving each of you with the mini rule book, templates etc.... and double the troop options for the same cost as one box

TasadarTheMadBear wrote:
Thanks alot for the feedback!!

If I were to go with High Elves, is the Island of Blood box set worth the price? I love the SW models but not sure if I'd use any of the other ones.

If I decide WoC, is an all cavalry army effective at all? I was thinking all Khorne Horsemen, Knights, Skullcrushers, Chariots, and Lord on Manticore.

Drop the horsemen and the manticore, and yes. Chariots are great, knights are good, skullcrushers are stupidly good. If you want to stick to the mounted theme, put a lord on a juggernaut and run him with some skullcrushers and he'll do fine. The problem with manticores is that while they're not exactly bad, they're very squishy and will leave your lord more vulnerable than you'd like.

Marauders and marauder horsemen in general are meh. Try them out if you'd like, but don't expect much.

The general problem with monsters is that you can't hide your character in a unit while he's riding the monster(which may not be very long) and that once his ride is dead he's still vulnerable till he can find a unit to hide in.

But an all cav army is definitely viable. Chariots for Core, Knights in Special, Skullcrushers in Rare, and all characters being mounted.

You will have to pick your combat's carefully, you can't afford to lose because you won't be Steadfast. The Crown of Command will be a valuable magic item to bring.

That said, Khorne Knights and Skullcrushers have the offensive output to almost never lose a melee. Just watch out for things with high strength attacks(str5+)