The Ogre Kingdoms Army

In this overview I will be going through every unit in the Ogre Kingdoms army, giving you their advantages and disadvantages, and any other useful info.

Tyrants and Bruisers
Tyrants and bruisers are the combat characters of the ogre army list. Both are very difficult to kill, with high wounds and toughness. They have access to a good selection of mundane weapons, as well as the common and army specific magic items. Considering their size, they have only an average leadership, quite surprising for something twice as tall as any Empire soldier. They are powerful in close combat with strength and number of attacks but struggle to compete with other races on the weapon skill side of things. Tyrants are best leading your most powerful regiments, being either Maneaters or Ironguts most of the time. Bruisers are better off helping the weaker units like Bulls keep up their combat resolution score.

Slaughtermasters and Butchers
These are the spell casters of the Ogre army. They have all six spells from the lore of gut magic, and these spells are great for enhancing the combat abilities of your Ogres etc. as well as causing panic in the enemy and causing destruction to them in the form of magic missiles. However, An Ogre may use no more than 2 dice on any one of these spells, which means that it is unlikely that they will get through to work properly before being dispelled. Also, they tend to be quite destructive to the casters as well, so I would always recommend having a “Halfling cookbook” magic item on your best wizard to ensure he survives his magic phase. They are also pretty good in combat, and so could easily take on the role as a Bruiser in a unit of Bulls.

Hunter
The Hunter is a very useful character for flanking. His harpoon launcher acts as a weaker bolt thrower and if you put him on the flank of an enemy and fire, you may be able to cause some significant damage to help your Ogres in combat later on. This Ogre's ability in combat is also useful in taking on fast cavalry. Charge him in there, and he should rip a good few to pieces, and as fast cavalry are usually far away from the general, they should break easily. Then you just send your cats to run them down.

Bulls
For unit size I would recommend taking 6-8 to ensure you aren't outnumbered at the end of the combat round. They have access to a relatively good selection of weapons to choose from, with the iron fist being the best. You can choose to use it as either a shield or an additional hand weapon in close combat, which is handy for dealing with specific threats.

Ironguts
Ironguts are supposed to be the elite bodyguard of the Tyrants. However, they are exactly the same as Bulls, but with great weapons and heavy armour and a slightly better leadership. I do not really recommend using them to guard the Tyrant, as Maneaters are much better for the job. Their great weapons do make them highly useful when in combat though, and the extra strength provided by these weapons is a useful thing to have and could make use of to threaten enemy units. Nobody should ever want to get into charge range of a unit of Ironguts, as they are so powerful with their great weapons.

Gnoblar Fighters
Unbelievably the Gnoblar, though four times shorter than an Ogre, can be used as a screen. They are only two points, so taking a big unit to screen most of your army will be affordable. Also, if they panic for whatever reason and flee, the Ogres and other Gnoblars will not be affected! Should the Gnoblars be lucky enough to actually get through all that without running, they can throw their “sharp stuff" and taunt enemies towards them in a baiting move. One problem is that if the Gnoblars act as a screen they can slow down the entire Ogre advance, leaving them vulnerable to missile fire for longer than is wanted.

Gnoblar Trappers
Gnoblar Trappers are skirmisher scouts in the Ogre Kingdoms army. With this ability they can be used to slow the advance of the enemy and help protect the flanks of the Ogre regiments..

Gnoblar Scraplauncher
The Scraplauncher is the Ogre Kingdoms chariot and artillery piece. To all intents and purposes a stone thrower on a chariot though it is only better. Instead of a small template, it is a large one! However, the hits are weaker and allow armour saves, but have the killing blow special rule, which makes them fantastic against man-sized multi-wounded models and heavily armoured enemies. The fact that it is also a chariot means that it can also fair well in combat, with its powerful charge that can cause significant damage through impact hits. It is definitely worth spending points on, its flexibility as a shooting and combat unit make it an extremely useful machine on any battlefield.

Leadbelchers
Leadbelchers are the missile troops of the Ogres, carrying old cannons and things they have stolen from the corpses of their dead enemies, or traded for with the Chaos Dwarfs. However, in their rules they do not each carry a cannon, so you're opponenets can breathe a sigh of relief. They are short ranged, and quite likely to blow up in the face of their gunner and other members of their unit. The Leadbelcher can misfire, as you roll an artillery dice to see how many shots they fire. One of these misfires can potentially kill 2 of the Ogres in the unit, not just the carrier of the weapon. Though they are temperamental, the Leadbelcher cannon is one of the most accurate weapons in the game (forgetting about auto-hit weapons for the moment). You ignore movement, long range and multiple shot effects when firing. The Leadbelcher cannon is also a one-use weapon unless you remain still and don't get into close combat for an entire Ogre turn after the turn of firing, which is incredibly difficult to do with a weapon with only a 12” range (the enemy will be extremely close). The best thing to do is to stick 2 or 3 on each flank. When the enemy flankers get too close, move up and then open fire. The power of the weapon should bring most down, and force panic tests, otherwise they will be within charge range and you may be able to get them in close combat to cut them down. Another way that may help is to use them as one-time shooters. They shoot their guns, and then you just charge them in on the next turn and use them as bulls with clubs. In reality you will not get much opportunity to shoot with them anyway, as by the time they enter 12” range the rest of your army will be pretty much in charging positions ready for combat.

Yhetees
Yhetees are another flexible unit in the Ogre Kingdoms army. They can move through any terrain without penalty, making them an annoyance for Wood Elf armies especially and very handy on terrain heavy boards. They are also a must have against Undead with their ice weapons, as they count as magical they can harm any of those pesky units you would normally have to get a character to sort out or avoid for the whole game. Their good strength means they should destroy these units with utmost ease. Another useful thing about the Yhetee is that it is at -1 to hit in close combat, which means it can still remain alive even against the highest of weapon skill opponents, which is handy as the Ogres only have average/reasonable weapon skill. Something that you must remember however is that they CANNOT see through terrain or finish a move in it, which means that if you move fully out of the terrain you are likely to be in charge range of something and within shooting distance of enemy missile units. As you are likely to have them in units of three, one successful shooting phase can force you to take panic tests (one dead Yhetee and there you have a panic test on leadership 7 if your general isn't nearby). For those reasons you will have to be careful about when and where you use the “scale terrain” special rule. Yhetees are also in possession of movement 7, making them as fast as many cavalry units you are likely to face. This gives them another advantage in making lances and other weapons that will carve through the hides of Ogres like a hot knife through butter much less of a threat. Use the scale terrain rule to move them close to a flank of a heavy cavalry unit, smash them and get another Ogre unit to hit them at the front, this will almost undoubtedly annihilate this key threat to your army.

Maneaters
Maneaters are the most powerful troops in the army IMO. They have access to mostly the same collection of weapons as the Tyrants and Bruisers and are also in possession of heavy armour. This combination makes them lethal warriors and in a big unit of six or eight charging can destroy almost anything without worry. They have no access to a command group, so combat resolution may be a problem with no standard, but a battle standard bearer can make up for this as well as providing more powerful attacks!

Gorgers
Gorgers are one of the most useful things in the Ogre Kingdoms army. The way the Gorger is brought into battle is similar to Dwarf Miners tunnelling; except with Gorgers it is compulsory. Being able to appear from any table edge you choose is a big help in defeating foes who would keep close to their own table edge. Gorgers are also able combatants and will prove their worth in the destruction of enemy artillery, which is an ability desperately needed to ensure the survival of your most likely heavily outnumbered Ogres. They also have a number of fantastic special rules, which enhance their use immensely: Fear, killing blow and unbreakable - these things help their role as the annoyance greatly and you must not forget to use them! However they do have one small tiny problem. They HAVE to end their move phase closer to the enemy, which in a lot of cases puts them into charge range for you but also means your enemy can lead your Gorger(s) around the field a bit. Luckily, your enemies will not want to charge them due to the unbreakable ability, so use it to your advantage.
Additionally, the special character Skragg the Slaughterer will make your Gorgers even more lethal. By using him, Gorgers can be taken as two per 1 special choice, which allows you to make room in the rare slots for Maneaters and Slave Giants. In addition, as Skragg gains kills your Gorgers get extra attacks, regeneration and the ability to re-roll to hit rolls in close combat. With these extra things you can make your Gorgers the most capable units in the field, and with great flexibility as units.