So the Ogre Kingdom army book for Warhammer has come stomping out of GW HQ and been released upon the world. As with the previous 8th edition Warhammer Army Books (Orcs and Goblins and Tomb Kings), it's another hardback affair and is all in colour (and there is even an added touch of blood splatters every now and then in the book). Looking at the army book as a whole, it's very nice and all of my previous fears of Jervis being involved have so far been proven wrong.However....
Whilst looking through the book, I have noticed that you can make a very competitive army which is strictly not in character for the book. Now when we picture Ogres in Warhammer, we think about big hungry monsters, always hungry wanting to rip people limb from limb. Now this is something you can do with the book as all Ogres got cheaper, got a better bull charge (impact hits from any distance and gets better if you roll 10 or more for the charge) and got some nice toys. Ogres still aren't great in Close Combat due to having low initative, Weapon Skill and not much armor and with some of the massive units we are currently seeing in the game, they need a helping hand.
So whilst looking through the book, trying to come up with ideas about how to help soften up enemy units, I noticed the humble little Gnoblar. After reading it's rules and costs I had a very big evil grin on my face.
The idea I have for the army centres around you having as many Gnoblar units of 10 with Trappers. Now a unit equipped like this is cheap to include in the list, doesn't cause panic if it gets destroyed, can stand and shoot and more importantly thanks to the Trappers causes a dangerous terrain test on EVERY model charging the unit. This effectively means you can create a mine field of Gnoblars in front of your ogre army to die and slow the enemy down whilst you pepper them with shooting (which Ogres actually have a lot of now) and then counter charge. This sort of list may suffer against static shooting armies (such as Dwarfs or Empire) but all the Ogre stuff that can shoot is actually still okay in combat, plus a Gnoblar unit buffed up by Gut Magic is actually a bit worrying as well.
I think in the hands of a good player this kind of list would be very competitive. However nothing beats playing an army in character and having loads of Ogres instead. What do you think?
I think the min unit Gnoblars with Trappers is worth every point. The trick is getting in enough killing/stopping power to make that roadblock/speedbump worth it. Not hard to do in larger games but at smaller points it would be tricky.
ReplyDeleteI think Ogres are always going to struggle in smaller games due to the points costs. There's not a lot you can do to get round that.
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