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How are ogre kingdoms looking in Aos?

I played a game with my OK this past weekend. It was a 100 wound battle versus my buddies Nurgle Daemons.

I took:
Tyrant
Butcher
Firebelly
5 Ogres
5 Ironguys
3 Leadbelchers
2 Mounrfang
1 Ironblaster

First- Ironguts are amazing. I had a unit of five running around chewing through everything from Beasts of Nurgle to Plague Bearers with ease. After losing two of them the remaining three took down a giant. With three attacks each, doing three damage each hit, these guys are borderline ridiculous. Plus a 2" range.

My Tryant held his own against a Beast of Nurgle and a Daemon Prince. Taking out both with two wound remaining.

I was worried about summoning but my Butcher and Firebelly (plus my opponents bad luck with dice) kept any further models from coming in.

The Leadbelchers shot up a unit of plaguebearers, taking them from ten to three before mopping them up in CC.

The Ironblaster didn't do much...but that was my own fault. I had positioned him badly.

The most disappointing unit for me was the Mournfangs. They got tied up with a unit of Plague Kings or whatever they're called and stayed there the entire battle trading hits back and forth.

Mournefang are a good jamming unit. 6 wounds and 4+ save means they can charge into anything and hold it up.

Ironblaster is crap now as far as shooting goes.

Maneaters are amazing also. Not as survivable as ironguts, but really good damage output, and versatile.

Ironguts, have now become one of the deadliest units in the game. I've killed monsters, heroes, units, etc.

Ditto for Ironguts. That Rend -1, 3 damage is amazing.

Mournfang have been hit or miss for me. I have mine equipped with Ironfists which allow them to cause a mortal wound when they roll a 6 to save. Mortal wounds are great.... when you roll that 6. I'm thinking the double club option would be better to allow rerolls to hit, I think, I'm going off memory here.

Firebelly use to be my crazy fireballer spell caster. I'd routinely throw 6 dice at the highest level of fireball to cause as many wounds as possible. Now he's kind of lackluster with the Cascading Firecloak spell.

GIANTS!!!!!!! Giants are so much better and fun to use.

I need to buy a Gorger or two. I want to see how many flank and rear charges I can get with their deployment rules.

One tactical piece of advice, don't be afraid to try for the sudden death victory wins. I've played two games so far and each game I was down a third of the model count to my opponent. I declared the terrain piece sudden death victory and won it. I should have done the same in my second match but we're still learning how to best play the game.

Thundertusk all day long. 6 mortal wounds on a +2 which normally lasts 2 turns before being reduced to d6. Beasts.

I have been getting in a bunch of games with my Ogres and have had some similar results to that previously mentioned. Here are some brief rundown of what my experience has been.

1. Enough good things cannot be said about Ironguts. They are absolutely amazing!!
2. Mornfangs are not as brutal as they once were, but their really high movement and durability is a big asset.
3. Giants got SOOO much better. They have a huge damage output and can actually pick command models out of units with the stuff in bag ability.
4. Thundertusk's shooting attack is doom to heroes. Six mortal wounds at full health will kill most heroes/wizards in the game. Very dangerous since they can be picked out now.
5. Maneaters make a very capable support unit, but surprisingly aren't as brutal as the Ironguts. There shooting helps mitigate this, and I am a big fan of the ability that makes them not have to take battleshock tests.
6. Gorgers are a big help in dealing with wizards and war machines. Entering the table eats their movement, but remember they can still charge the turn the come in.
7. Leadbelchers are probably my second favorite unit in the army. Their shooting can be absolutely devastating. Especially once they are locked in combat, since they can still shoot normally while doing so.
8. The Bruiser with battle standard bearer is helpful but I admit that I miss the range of the leadership boost.
9. Firebellies are nice, but their signature spell is not as nice as Butchers, whose maw spell is amazing.
10. Hunters got a nice boost in my opinion. Their throwing spear can be very brutal if the shot makes contact and they still are strong in combat.
11. Skragg misses his ability to cast spells, but still pulls his weight. His healing prayer, innate healing and boost to the Gorgers is appreciated.
12. The Ironblaster is still useful, and provides a big help in dealing with enemy monsters, but is somewhat lackluster.
13. The scraplauncher on the other hand wrecks face for big units and doesn't need line of sight.
14. Sabertusks make a great flanking unit. They can be very useful in getting behind your opponent and getting to hard to reach units with the charge bonus from a hunter.
15. Golfag Maneater is a good hero to hold a flank, and all of his upgrade abilities are very useful.

Hope this helps everyone out. I absolutely love the army and what they have done with them. I have many more schemes still to come and will have to follow up as we get closer.

What are your views on the stonehorn. I know people are praising the thundertusk for the 2+ to hit 18" range causing up to 6 mortal wounds depending on how many wounds you have left but the stonehorn gets something similar where after it charges which it must do if a enemy is within 12" even if you ran you can pick a enemy unit within 1" and that unit suffers d6 mortal wounds plus the stonehorn is much more of a powerhouse in close combat compared to the thundertusk with more attacks plus the stonehorn still has some ranged attacks. Seems the more jack of all trades to me compared to the thundertusk. Plus you half the wounds it receives rounding up. Think with my new kit I'll be assembling the stonehorn.

I agree with the ironguts statements. They are a hard unit no doubt about it. My favorites though are the Butcher and Skragg. Skragg, just because it's Skragg. The Butchers though with the great maw spell...oh man is that a riot. My buddy and I have been playing some games and everytime he summons more models, my butcher just eats them. It's a great equalizer to all of those summoning units that the other armies have. Run two butchers and you can keep an undead player honest.

munnster wrote:
What are your views on the stonehorn. I know people are praising the thundertusk for the 2+ to hit 18" range causing up to 6 mortal wounds depending on how many wounds you have left but the stonehorn gets something similar where after it charges which it must do if a enemy is within 12" even if you ran you can pick a enemy unit within 1" and that unit suffers d6 mortal wounds plus the stonehorn is much more of a powerhouse in close combat compared to the thundertusk with more attacks plus the stonehorn still has some ranged attacks. Seems the more jack of all trades to me compared to the thundertusk. Plus you half the wounds it receives rounding up. Think with my new kit I'll be assembling the stonehorn.

I must be honest in saying that it is a really tough choice between the two. And I will totally agree that the Stonehorn is a better all around monster, and a wrecking machine in close combat. While it can be used to pick out models when it charges, this assumes you roll high enough on the D6 mortal wounds and the target was exposed in the first place. Not a breaking point by any means, but something to consider.

I prefer the Thundertusk (personally) for three basic reasons.

First: The sniping ability is a ranged attack, its movement and range pretty much means that if deployed in the center, no enemy model can hide from it unless they deployed in a corner or on a board edge. Either case putting them in a very limited position vulnerable to gorgers.
Second: Assuming you've no more than two wounds, it is almost a guaranteed kill on a character. This is not overly unreasonable on your first turn, considering the before mentioned range (allowing you to keep it further back), the ability to cast mystical shield or even healing via Skragg. There are very few non-monster characters besides ogres that have more than six wounds, and this becomes a HUGE threat.
Third: While the Stonehorn is an undeniable killing machine, close combat massacres can be accomplished via a variety of other units in the army, such as Maneaters, Ironguts or Mournfang Cavalry. And it is on this note that I feel the Thundertusk fills a somewhat unique role for the army at this point.

Let me say that none of this makes the Thundertusk BETTER than a Stonehorn, but simply indicates why I prefer it. They are both great options and I am currently working to be able to use both. And with the battlescroll employing both alongside two units of Mournfang, all the more reason to bring ALL the stompy montsers!

Gorgers are still terrible, they can enter from any table edge, but biggest issue is cannot be within 12 inches of an enemy. So they are going to be charged and they only have 6+ armor, so very prone to dying with doing nothing.

oz of the north wrote:
Gorgers are still terrible, they can enter from any table edge, but biggest issue is cannot be within 12 inches of an enemy. So they are going to be charged and they only have 6+ armor, so very prone to dying with doing nothing.

With five wounds each I have not found them to prohibitively vulnerable. And often if my opponent wishes to turn around to charge them, I am very happy to oblige them. In doing so they are splitting their forces, making my life that much easier for the majority of the combat.

Your results, may vary, but the Gorgers have served me well. To each their own, I suppose.

Iron Guts seem to be the single strongest unit in the game. They are ridiculous.

 StevO wrote:

oz of the north wrote:
Gorgers are still terrible, they can enter from any table edge, but biggest issue is cannot be within 12 inches of an enemy. So they are going to be charged and they only have 6+ armor, so very prone to dying with doing nothing.

With five wounds each I have not found them to prohibitively vulnerable. And often if my opponent wishes to turn around to charge them, I am very happy to oblige them. In doing so they are splitting their forces, making my life that much easier for the majority of the combat.

Your results, may vary, but the Gorgers have served me well. To each their own, I suppose.

True, I only used them once and it was a 3 way with limits, so more split my army up. So I think should just try them more, my biggest issue is just their lack of attacks bothers me, and have to start atleast 12 inches away when summoned have to only be 9 away, or what ever the chaos warriors have with the leader bringing a unit on.

I've played several games with OK. So far i like the stone horn, but delivering it to melee quickly is key (thankfully with its absurdly fast move, this typically isn't a problem).

I like double club bulls a lot, i tend to run them in units of 6. Anything you can do to keep them more protected is a good idea, btw.


Mournfang are also quite nice. Fairly survivable, and between the riders and mournfang, they hit like a ton of bricks.

The tyrants ability is nice; the ability to pass out perma-battleshock ignoring for the cost of 1-3 wounds is a small price to pay. Use it on a unit of Mournfang or bulls that your'e going to swing wide. The tyrant can also hit like a dump truck, but is susceptible to being picked off by massed range (like most single model scrolls).

Of all the armies i play, i enjoy AoS with ogres the most (of High, Dark, combined elves, lizardmen, (chaos) dwarves, and ogres).


Oh, and thundertusks undamaged = Hero solitaire. 6 instant mortal wounds + some ancillary shooting on top is really nasty. Ironguts are good too, though people quickly figure out to mass firepower at them.

Try bulls with Ironfists and arcane shield...

RoperPG wrote:
Try bulls with Ironfists and arcane shield...

Yeah that's a nice anvil unit too. Still, Ironguts with Arcane Shield are filthy.

So there is one unit that I have not used yet and am having a very hard time figuring out a use for.

Gnoblars.

What the heck are you all using these guys for?

 StevO wrote:
So there is one unit that I have not used yet and am having a very hard time figuring out a use for.

Gnoblars.

What the heck are you all using these guys for?

Board presence?

From what I've seen, "Ogors" lack the ability to spread out and hinder enemy movement. If you take a 30 wound unit of Gnoblars (which you should if you're taking them at all) then that gives you at least a 60" squared blob to taking up space on the table. Their trapping ability suggests they should be used this way since it works for any enemy ending a charge within 3", which doesn't necessarily mean a charge into the Gnoblars themselves. And no matter how bad they are, a potential of 90 ranged attacks seems insane.

ChazLikesCake wrote:

 StevO wrote:
So there is one unit that I have not used yet and am having a very hard time figuring out a use for.

Gnoblars.

What the heck are you all using these guys for?

Board presence?

From what I've seen, "Ogors" lack the ability to spread out and hinder enemy movement. If you take a 30 wound unit of Gnoblars (which you should if you're taking them at all) then that gives you at least a 60" squared blob to taking up space on the table. Their trapping ability suggests they should be used this way since it works for any enemy ending a charge within 3", which doesn't necessarily mean a charge into the Gnoblars themselves. And no matter how bad they are, a potential of 90 ranged attacks seems insane.

I kinda feel like two units of ironguts or two monsters or a monster and three mournfangs still seem to be superior. The main issue with gnoblars here is that they're not ogres. They could make good chaff/charge stopper unit when taken as minimum size so you could jump out from the flanks and charge the sides of enemy unit, but won't the wound equivalent of ironguts be just plain superior at that AND much less prone to battleshock casualties due to testing it per model lost rather than wounds?

I have yet to play my first OK game, but so far I am considering a list like this:

Firebelly
Butcher

3 Ironguts
3 Ironguts

2 Mournfangs

Giant

That sets me at 50 wounds and follows the leaked GW store tournament rules with army composition based on rules and keywords. Only thing I'd change is replacing the giant with a Thundertusk, but I don't own one yet. Initially the plan was to add a Tyrant rather than Firebelly, but he's one wound higher, so that pops me up to 51, so I would have to go for 75 wound bracket (those rules have "per 25 wounds" composition brackets) and I don't have enough ogres or O&G for that yet. Might change when I get a Thundertusk.

EDIT: forgot to mention - this is roughly the AoS starter set wound count - Sigmarines have 47 wounds in the starter.

StevO wrote:Gnoblars.

What the heck are you all using these guys for?

If I had 30+ gnoblars built and painted already, I would happily run a massive mob of the things. Mostly for the junk shooting really, I love rolling me some dice and seeing what happens - particularly in AOS where enemy stats don't matter.

Klerych wrote:I kinda feel like two units of ironguts or two monsters or a monster and three mournfangs still seem to be superior.

Unfortunately there's the rub: Gnoblars exist in a compendium with Ironguts, who are brain meltingly good at what they do. They also will inevitably compete with guts for wounds/comp points, which run out pretty fast when building ogre 'lists'.

And if you're about to jump in and rebut that you don't use any army comp, I think you'll find that injecting that many models into your list isn't good by pure AOS standards. One of Ogres' many strengths in this game is the ability to grab Sudden Death with relative ease. If you're one of those people who play with Sudden Death

- Salvage

 Boss Salvage wrote:

And if you're about to jump in and rebut that you don't use any army comp, I think you'll find that injecting that many models into your list isn't good by pure AOS standards. One of Ogres' many strengths in this game is the ability to grab Sudden Death with relative ease. If you're one of those people who play with Sudden Death

- Salvage

So this sums up my primary debate on using them. It is not to say that they are terrible, as they clearly have uses. It is that without a point system to speak of, there is no way they can ever compete with the other units at the ogres disposal. Close combat is impressively lackluster when compared to the rest of the army. Shooting is an incredibly short range, making them subpar to leadbelchers.

I keep hoping they will release a formation for them and the scraplauncher that will give me a reason to choose them over something else.

I finally got to square off against Stormcast Eternals. Realizing they have plenty of abilities to help them against my ogres I tried to pick my combats. The extra movement that ogres have is a big advantage here. The paladins and relictors are only movement 4, all of which allow for good maneuvering on the ogres part, especially mournfangs.

My Thundertusk dealt with the prosecutors, while my mournfangs pounced on the paladins. This allowed me to tackle the remaining forces relatively unscathed. Mystic Shield from the Butcher was a big help to the Thundertusk to keep it alive and healthy as long as possible, and later to help the mournfangs.

Given how charges and movement works in AoS I underestimated how much those few extra inches would help. Despite the increased freedom, maneuvering is still pretty crucial.