who make the best allies

I want to form an alliance with my ogres just to make things interesting, but I'm unsure who it would work best with. I've considered using high elves as they have good magic ability and more ranged attacks.  Chaos have fast cavalry and warhounds so I could tie up units quicker and skaven are an option to get some tarpits and cool magic on the board. Any suggestions would be great

Skaven are my second favorite faction in the game, and I've considered starting a second army for the sole reason of having something to ally with. That said, though, it'd really only be for my love of the fluff — I don't think it's actually all that good of an idea tactically! Ogres are never Trusted allies and Skaven are always Fragile. So you won't get many benefits you would with other armies, and even the benefits you do get you won't be able to keep for long! So unless you adore the factions (and a lot of us do) I wouldn't recommend Skaven or Dark Elves for their lack of trustworthiness.

fluff out the window:

Dwarfs - Gunline troops will compliment your stompy ogre nicely, with the added bonus of major magic protection, high T troops with bloody good armour will work well with ogres. ALso gives your ogres some of the best warmachines in the game!

Chaos Warriors - lots of solid units, a few units of mauraders will give your ogres some numbers very cheaply and IMO marauders ore the best unit in the game for thier points cost, especially with great weapons. I unit of PROPER elite infantry too such as a unit of chosen will really sharpen the sword of your ogres. some really good magic in thier too, tzeentch sorcerers are NASTY

Lizardmen - High T troops will work well alongside ogres and even out your numbers, big gribbly such as a stegadon, whats not to love with them, skinks will give you some skirmishing troops with poison weapons that frequently cause me issues when i play them...oh and magic ....... LM magic is IMO one of best in game

High elves - ASF first troops are NAILS in  cc...poroviding they dont fluff thier attacks, some seriously strong infantry such as swordmasters of hoeth, complimented by reallly good shooting, and pretty good at magic, though sadly HE magic is not very offensive, great when used defensivly though!

DArk elves - Same as High elves except they lose ASF, however thier initiative is very high so nat always an issue.....except with executioners ( Elves that hit last...never good), good shooting and best of all...hyrdas ftw. really good offensive magic too!

Skaven - on a good day skaven on amazingly amazing, on a bad day they kill themselves with everything they do, some really really good offensive magic, cracks call and skitterleap is a nasty combo, some great Rnf troops will boost your numbers significantly. Some really fun warmachines that potentially could emliminate all that stands in thier way, though sadly they tend to misfire. a lot. Doom whell and abominations are pure dirt though, even with the risk!

Empire - 2nd best shooty army IMO after dwarfs, and its a close call, hellblaster vollygun is potent, magic is varied, and plenty of RnF troops to bump ya numbers, versatile army is empire and very strong when used correctly.

They would be my best choices

Thanks for the advice, I could easily ally with dwarfs. Have about 3000 points of them already, my concern is losing the line of sight with ogres being so big. I guess I could sit and wait and charge ogres when the enemy is close.

Like the magic resistance and artillery of dwarfs, don't have my army book to hand does anyone know if I could use thorek's powers on the ogres to double there movement

Unless I'm remembering it wrong, if you take Dwarfs as allies but have a Butcher in your army, the dwarfs lose their innate dispel bonus. I'll double-check later. Just something to be mindful of!

I'd say Empire. Cheaper than Dwarfs means you can efficiently build tarpit infantry units, and the Empire's artillery is really, really nasty. You get a bit of everything by combining Empire and Ogres.

Am I right in thinking that I could use an allied wizard to cast speed of light on my ogres to make them ws10 an I10

What about wood elves! great back line shooting! fast fliers! high WS and I! tree spirits!!!
plus great models to chose from!

Fluff wise. The Empire would be no 1
Allies chart wise. The same(albeit a tie with most other armies)
Tacticaly wise. I could argue the Empire. Guns, 8 Magic lores, cheap troops.
Astheticly wise.(Makes no sense i know) The Empire and Ogres share many traits and the Greatsword models are my personal favorites,after ironguts.

And lets face it. They pay cash,on time, every time.
And thats the most important fact of all....

Consider the following: Your'e going to be wanting to advance (Normally you don't hang back with ogres) so you don't want slow support. For that reason I'd choose Empire over dwarves, though woodelves may be even better, and they've got great mobility. I think Lizardmen would be a great choice too. They've got super infantry, cheep mobile shooting, anti-artillery fliers and scouts, and some nasty magic.

I like the elf idea. Wood elfs ftw. But empire makes most sense as far asi can see.

Skaven, just for stormbanner.

Any thoughts on using orks as allies, i've not yet seen the new book. At the moment im building a small high elf force to use with my ogres, teclis is amazing and they have some great elite units.

Warriors of Chaos.

a "one two punch" with the Black Tongue, Infernal Puppet, and Hellheart eats people up. I exploded Teclis with this combo.

the Warriors can provide some numbers while the Ogres are the Muscle.


the Infernal Puppet is also nice because it's very powerful at manipulating any miscasts your butchers suffer. you can almost garuntee you don't lose your butcher.

Rats fighting alongside Ogres seems like fun. our Rat Ogre cousins and lots of shooting.

Storm Banner and Howling Warpgale help stop our Ogres being shot up which is very nice.