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I know there are a lot of newbie questions floating around so thanks for looking here.

I am doing a painting commission and instead of cash he is giving me a big lot of Ogres. I figured this would be a good start into AOS. I saw the free warscrolls and figured it would be a cheap foray into the game. Here is where I am confused. I saw recently that a Battletome for Beastclaw Ogres got released. Im assuming this is similar to a codex, and it had an overlay with some of the units in the Ogre Warscrolls. Does the battletome replace the Ogre warscrolls so I cant use some of my stuff? Is the Beastclaws the "new" Ogre army? I see this with quite a few other armies as well and as a new AOS player its VERY confusing(flesheater courts vs vamp counts and so on) If its not replacing it, can I mix entries together? Do I have to take them all from the warscrolls or all from the battle tome?

On a side note if I can use all the minis, how viable are Ogres as an army?

Thanks for the help!

Ogres sit at the top of the efficiency pile. They are very good.

Well how viable is an ogre army? Its a hell of a lot of fun if you like ogres so pretty viable. Competitive? yes ogres are nasty but so is everything in AOS

NOW........you do NOT need the beastclaw book to use those units. You do need the beastclaw book if you intend on running pure beastclaw and using its benefits and artifacts, etc.

The changes to the warscrolls that are in the beastclaw book are reflected in the AOS app which is free. So you can still get all the rules you will ever need to play AOS for free including all the new things for the ogres. If you would like to use points you can always buy the handbook that has included all points for everything. You can take all of it together. Try not using points for your first few games just bring at least 1 hero, 1 mage, 1 monster, and say 2-3 other units to learn the mechanics and how things work. open play is much much better to get started with

Ogors are now 2 main factions- Gutbustas and Beastclaw. Sounds like you may have Gutbustas, which consist of nost of the Ogor infantry and Grots.

Also, i'd encourage you to go into the game with an open mind, and choosing the army you'd most enjoy either play-style-wise, or aesthetically (or both!).

Far too much is being said about "efficiency" ratings, etc... where in practice the margins are much closer than raw numbers would often imply. Plus, many of us find the idea of doing raw math-hammer dubious, as it doesn't account for the variables that can wildly swing results.

Tailessine wrote:
Ogors are now 2 main factions- Gutbustas and Beastclaw. Sounds like you may have Gutbustas, which consist of nost of the Ogor infantry and Grots.

So there are now two ogor (ogre?) factions. I think I do have the gutbustas which is fine. I do have some guy on a thundertusk and some mourn fang Calvary. Are those now part of Beastclaw only or can i still use the rules of the Gutbustas to have a more cohesive force?

Some abilities can wildly swing. Other abilities are minor. Really depends and to get the truth out of that statement would require sitting down and modeling an entire game and seeing what the mean standard was and comparing the actual results to see just how much of a difference a set of active abilities had on the game.

(we would also need to define the threshold at which the deviation was considered minor, moderate, and major)

It is very apparent that there are some armies that are a lot easier to use than others though.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Also, i'd encourage you to go into the game with an open mind, and choosing the army you'd most enjoy either play-style-wise, or aesthetically (or both!).

Far too much is being said about "efficiency" ratings, etc... where in practice the margins are much closer than raw numbers would often imply. Plus, many of us find the idea of doing raw math-hammer dubious, as it doesn't account for the variables that can wildly swing results.

I think I mis labeled myself. I play 40k semi competitively and am really excited to play what looks cool in AOS. I am not looking to blast my opponents but more for a fun game. I was mostly concerned because in 40k there are a few armies that are MOSTLY auto lose no matter what you do and I wanted to avoid that. But it sounds like Ogres can stand their own!

Mercifully, even the best of AoS armies don't seem to have quite the gulf between them and their rivals that 40k do between say Gladius Strike Force-SM, and a fluffy Tyranid list.

Yes, there are fire-and-forget lists right now like four Thundertusks at 2000pts, or four Dwarf Cannons w/Engineer, etc... that are powerful, and easy to play, but there are likewise lots of cool armies that do well using finesse, etc...

I'd argue the game is in a pretty decent place, and since list-building is so loose (stick within your Grand Alliance, and meet a few basic requirements of hero/battleline troops), you can do all kinds of fun, fluffy, or cut-throat things with almost any faction or sub-factions you enjoy.

 thekerrick wrote:

Tailessine wrote:
Ogors are now 2 main factions- Gutbustas and Beastclaw. Sounds like you may have Gutbustas, which consist of nost of the Ogor infantry and Grots.

So there are now two ogor (ogre?) factions. I think I do have the gutbustas which is fine. I do have some guy on a thundertusk and some mourn fang Calvary. Are those now part of Beastclaw only or can i still use the rules of the Gutbustas to have a more cohesive force?

You can either focus on one, the other, or a combination of multiple sub-factions. Generally abilities tend to work within a particular sub-faction (For example, most Command Abilities will specify what sub-faction they work on), but by diversifying you can bring in units to cover things a particular sub-faction won't be able to cover.

So Gutbuster Ogors and Beastclaw Raiders are a perfect example. Gutbusters have all your standard infantry Ogors, some artillery and magic. Beastclaw Raiders have Mournfang Cavalry and monsters in the way of Thundertusks and Stonehorns. You can run one sub-faction or the other, or combine them both to make a more flexible army.
It's up to you really.

If you're intending to play under Matched Play rules, it's important to understand that some units are only Battleline (Core or Troops) if your entire army focusses on a particular sub-faction. So for instance, Beastclaw Raiders have a bunch of Battleline troops but only if you stick exclusively to Beastclaw Raiders. If you want to combine your factions, you need to rely on regular Ogors (or other Destruction Battleline units) to fulfil your minimum Battleline requirement.

I actually just bought a bunch of Ogors and with the models I've purchased, have a good variety to combine both Gutbuster and Beastclaw as well. That's my plan, as it gives me a bit of everything.